Here is an expert reaction to Cardinal Nichols’s strategic review from the Society for the Protection of Westminster Cathedral Choir. I’ve deleted my own off-the-cuff reaction. This is what you need to know:
While welcoming a couple of the review’s changes, the SPWCC’s statement is extraordinarily damning. The passage below suggests that the school is about to come under painful and overdue scrutiny.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Thread: Famous names including Bianca Jagger, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Princess Michael of Kent, Sir Andras Schiff, Tom Holland, Lady Antonia Fraser and many others appeal to the Vatican to save the Traditional Latin Mass in a letter to the Times tomorrow.
Letter implores the Holy See not to impose further 'unnecessary and insensitive' restrictions on the TLM. Other signatories: Sir Nicholas Coleridge, Sir Stephen Hough, Sir Paul Smith, Dame Mitsuko Uchida and one of the letter's organisers, Sir James MacMillan.
Full list of signatories asking Rome to save the Traditional Latin Mass:
The shocking hidden scandals surrounding Pope Francis – and the battle to succeed him. Me for @Unherd unherd.com/2024/04/the-sc…
'For years, allegations that would torpedo the career of any secular Western leader have been concealed or played down by a Praetorian Guard of liberal journalists who, back in 2013, staked their reputations on “the Great Reformer”. '
'Vatican staff are terrified of a boss whose autocratic rule is shaped more by rages and resentments than by theology. But one gruesome scandal involving papal ally Fr Marko Rupnik is stripping away the facade of “the Squid Game pontificate”, as it’s nicknamed.'
Thread: Arthur Roche is up to something. Everyone is talking about his brazen self-confidence, his willingness to exceed his remit on curtailing the Latin Mass, his general swanking and air of invulnerability.
As Prefect of the DDW he has a lot of influence, but he's behaving as if he, rather than Francis, is calling the shots. It's as if he thinks the Pope won't notice. And that's quite a risk given Francis's brutal record of sackings. So what's Arthur's game?
One theory – you may think it incredible – is that he's reading himself for the conclave. Roche would be no one's first choice (unless you count Mike Lewis) and he knows it. But perhaps he thinks he could 'emerge' to break a deadlock.
Thread. 1. It is vital that #CatholicTwitter gives full attention to the breaking scandal of Fr Mark Rupnik SJ, whose mosaic art earned him celebrity. Some aspects are as shocking as those of the McCarrick scandal – if not more so. Pope Francis's behaviour is inexplicable.
2. Rupnik was accused last year of spiritually and sexually abusing adult women from a Slovenian religious community. The Vatican knew of the allegations , Rupnik suspended but no prosecution because of a canonical statute of limitations. Unbelievable. And...
3. ... yet as @PillarCatholic explains Rupnik could have been prosecuted if the Vatican had chosen to 'waive prescription' (ie statute of limitations ignored). But there is worse.
Good bless @PillarCatholic for its newsletter takedown of Lists of Catholic Influencers – bittersweet reading for any Catholic journalists driven to the point of insanity (or resignation) by proprietors who think of little else. Can't resist tweeting it out. Here goes:
2. Very good point at the end of @PillarCatholic's intro to its typical time-wasting Catholic Influencers' List:
3. The Pillar's guide to making your own "influential Catholic list":