🧵

I was present at @JDVance's speech yesterday at the @NatCathPrBrkfst.

And I watched later as Vance belied his pious peacemaking pose by berating the president of the country that Pope Francis has repeatedly called "martyred Ukraine" (vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2…). (1 of 9) x.com/TrumpWarRoom/s… Vance, to his credit, did tell us at the breakfast that he was still learning about Catholicism. He said his door was open and we could speak with him. So, @VP @JDVance, I would like to tell you about the Third Secret of Fatima. (2 of 9)

(Photo source: ) americamagazine.org/faith/2017/03/…

🧵In January '05, @nypost fired me after I made an unauthorized pro-life change to a pro-IVF story by @SusanBEdelman. When @georgegurley3rd covered my firing in @observer, NYers were shocked that it was possible to be too conservative for the Post!
1/xweb.archive.org/web/2005021203… Fast forward almost 20 years and we have a presidential contest where the so-called "conservative" candidate vows to veto a federal abortion ban (politico.com/news/2024/10/0…), claims he's "the father of IVF," and promises to force taxpayers to pay for it.
washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthc… 2/x

Day 3 since Alejandro Bermudez--former head of the @EWTN-owned @cnalive, where his staff included @jdflynn and @canonlawyered--was expelled from his religious movement for abusive behavior & journalistic malpractice. Still no coverage of his expulsion from CNA or @PillarCatholic.

https://twitter.com/DawnofMercy/status/1839073612105494774

I was among many who submitted testimony for the Vatican probe of Bermudez. It wasn't something I intended to discuss publicly. But he's twice named me as having testified against hm—first in a July tweet, and then in a video yesterday—so I'll share a bit of what I testified. 2/x

If you use @HallowApp, be aware that your data is now available to a company co-owned by @JDVance1 and his billionaire backer @peterthiel, as I explain in this thread. They have access to details of your physical whereabouts and your interior life, such as your prayer interests.

https://twitter.com/DawnofMercy/status/1815264932880859600

But there's more. Through their investment in @HallowApp, @JDVance1 & his backer @peterthiel also have access to data on Catholic children. Hallow collects data on kids 12 & under with parents' permission. It takes data on kids 13+ without parents' OK. ...hallow.com/terms-of-servi…

I'm concerned that @HallowApp platforms QAnon booster Jim Caviezel as well as @rustyrockets, who's currently under investigation after 4 women accused him of sexual assault (). But I'm more concerned that its investors include @peterthiel and @JDVance1. 1/x vox.com/culture/2023/9…

https://twitter.com/mfjlewis/status/1813947490976334145

Thiel's extreme libertarian and transhumanist views are profoundly at odds with Catholic faith & morals. He holds that freedom & democracy are incompatible (). He's invested millions in trying to beat death through AI, etc. (the "Singularity" movement). 2/xweb.archive.org/web/2012012420…

I have some very exciting news to report! But first, the backstory:
Four months ago, I approached an official from the National Eucharistic Congress offering to speak on Father Ed, my biography of the Jesuit whose spiritual guidance changed the life of A.A. co-founder Bill W. 1/x The official told me all speaking slots for the Eucharistic Congress were filled.

I then asked if there would be a room set aside at the event for Friends of Bill W. It's common practice at conferences & on cruise ships to designate a place for folks in recovery to meet. 2/x

🧵Today in 1969, Fr Louis J. Twomey SJ died in New Orleans. Friend of Walker Percy, Dorothy Day, & MLK, he labored for the rights of African-Americans, workers, & the poor. I’m writing his biography; here are some things I’ve learned: (1/x)
(Photo from Loyola Special Collections) Born in Tampa in 1905, young Louis J. Twomey was a star baseball player @Georgetown. But he dropped out after his junior year in 1926 to join the #Jesuits—rejecting an offer from the Washington Senators, who were then one of the top teams in the country. (2/x)

The @NapaInstitute, a self-professed "Catholic" organization that has long expressed its disdain for canon law (see ), today sent an email blast to raise funds illicitly through @UCU_University for non-humanitarian military aid to Ukraine soldiers. (1 of 5)ncronline.org/news/authentic… The @NapaInstitute email specifically seeks funds for offensive equipment. Although Ukraine has a right to defend itself, there are serious canonical as well as moral problems when Catholic orgs raise funds for killing people. See next tweet for a link to the full email. (2 of 5)

A Halloween thread about my Halloween threads:

Every Halloween that I dress up, I dress as Nico. When I was younger, I dressed as young Nico. Now I dress as old Nico. She died at 49, but (luckily for my Halloween needs) looked older. That's her on the left. (1 of 3) And yes, I made videos, because it was fun! Here I lip-sync a bit of Nico's version of a Jackson Browne tune. Trying for a 1982 feel. (2 of 3)

This past weekend, #CatholicTwitter learned ...

... that @GKCdaily gleefully selects Chesterton's most anti-Semitic quotes--drawing even from unreprinted writings--to disseminate them to its 145K followers;

1/5

https://twitter.com/DawnofMercy/status/1581355318637842432

... that not only does @chestertonsoc refuse to disavow @GKCdaily's anti-Semitism, but its prez Dale Ahlquist even wrote a rave review in its magazine of an anti-Semitic book by E. Michael Jones under the Jewish-sounding pseudonym Bradley Rothstein;

https://twitter.com/SeanPDailey2/status/1581775468994625536

2/5

Public-service announcement:

Recently @fredlbarr, who has followed me & tweeted at me supportively for years, DMed me after I asked if anyone in Boston was interested in having me speak there. He offered to assist me & said he was in fact Father Fred Barr of @bostoncatholic. 1/6 Father Fred added that he was retired from the priesthood and asked me not to tell anyone he was a priest.

I then Googled him and found articles such as this: findingchristinastory.com/ancientfaithne…. When I asked Fr. Fred about them, he expressed offense that I had put his name into Google. 2/6

As I said in my address to @chestertonsoc (see ), we must distinguish between those things he said that are worthy of praise and those things he said that are unacceptable.

The statement in @GKCdaily's tweet below is absolutely unacceptable. 1/2

https://twitter.com/GKCdaily/status/1580066658911391745

And it's not the first time that the account has tweeted such anti-Jewish hatred to its 144K followers.

Worse still, the quote has never been reprinted in any Chesterton collection. You have to be _looking_ for anti-Semitic quotes to find it.

For shame!

https://twitter.com/gkcdaily/status/1504428129867161608

I shared earlier about Buddy Harrison, my fellow St. Joseph's Capitol Hill (@GoodNewsDC) parishioner. He was an ex-con who found Jesus, became a daily Mass-goer, and spent nearly every day of his life serving Christ's poor until he was gunned down outside his home Sept. 25. 1/x

https://twitter.com/DawnofMercy/status/1576078706388312065

Here's a good obit of Buddy (but it mistakenly says he had pancreatic rather than prostate cancer): eastoftheriverdcnews.com/2022/10/10/in-…
Today I was at his funeral Mass. I've never seen one like it. About 300 folks were there, most of them non-Catholic, many if not most Black or Hispanic. 2/x

Dear @katie4louisiana:
Having watched your @CNN interview, including the remarkable ad in which you give birth, I have a question: You say when Roe was overturned, you considered moving out of state, as you feared you might be denied proper care for your high-risk pregnancy. 1/4 I myself am concerned at reports that some doctors post-Dobbs have hesitated to give women miscarriage care prior to fetal viability (nytimes.com/2022/07/20/us/…).
But here's the thing: You told CNN that when you considered moving, you were already _seven_months_ pregnant. 2/4

I am pro-life. That includes being anti-abortion save for cases where it is necessary to save the mother's life.

So the following thread is not a dispute between a "pro-life" and "pro-choice" person, or vice versa.

It's about a threat to every human life, born & unborn,
🧵 1/x

https://twitter.com/cantdon/status/1566461553955770370

namely, the threat to democracy that I detailed in the thread to which @cantdon responded:

https://twitter.com/DawnofMercy/status/1565775559019446273

. It's the threat posed by a GOP that refuses to reject Trump's election lies. It's the threat of the US falling under a "pro-life" strongman as did Nicaragua. 2/x

I recently requested prayers, as I had a meeting at a diocese that I hoped might lead to a job.

Well, your prayers & mine were answered: I *wasn't* hired, but I trust that means the Lord has something better.

Now I have two more prayer requests + an offer to pray for you:

1/x 1) Please keep praying the Lord will lead me to a position that will engage at least some of my abilities as a Catholic theologian/canon lawyer/writer/editor/sparkplug/etc.

2) Tonight, the vigil of my birthday, I renew my annual dedication of my celibacy. ...

2/x

In light of Biden's speech last night, some pro-life reflections upon @saletan's insight that the GOP's strategy, which Trump has taken to a new level, is based on "inserting lies into conventional moral appeals":

I and my fellow US pro-lifers made a deal with the devil. 1/x

https://twitter.com/saletan/status/1490680496531165185

The GOP said, "We'll save the unborn if you let us promote the death penalty."

The US pro-life movement said, "Sure."

The GOP said, "We'll save the unborn if you let us defund programs that help poor families raise and educate healthy children."

Pro-lifers said, "Sweet!"

2/x

This week @OrbisBooks confirmed to me that my biography of Fr Ed Dowling SJ (bookshop.org/books/father-e…) will be in stores Dec. 1. So I'm thrilled to be able finally to plan my book tour! Thus far I've confirmed dates in DC & MD, & am working to confirm ones in OH, TN, & MO. 1/x But here's the deal: I want to speak about Fr Ed EVERYWHERE--every state, every country, every place that'll have me. The advance response to my bio of him (see @amazon for more endorsements: amazon.com/Father-Ed-Stor…) bears witness that his story has great power to inspire. 2/x

As a theologian (STD), I read @SFDiocese Bishop DeGrood’s pastoral letter on transgender ideology (s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2213…) with approval. But as a @CUACanonLaw student (finishing my thesis), I read some of its accompanying policies (s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2213…) with alarm.
🧵
1/x Certainly, per canon law, Bishop DeGrood has a responsibility to teach the Catholic faith, & as a shepherd he has the right to make particular law for his diocese. And most of his new policies are in line with accepted canonical practice. But a few are dangerously ambiguous. 2/x

The latest CatholicVote video makes the seemingly innocuous point that churches should do marriage ministry. However, it features JP De Gance of Communio (not the journal), which harvests data under the guise of helping churches minister to couples. (1/x)
De Gance appears in a documentary available on @YouTube, "People You May Know," by @charleskriel, which details how Communio got its database from the Steve Bannon-linked Cambridge Analytica--see @C_Stroop's article: religiondispatches.org/people-you-may…. (2/x)

The award for today's pettiest controversy goes to the heresy hunters who are all atwitter over @JamesMartinSJ's referring to Jesus as a "human being." Father Martin's accusers fail to note that he is using the term "human _being_," which is not the same as "human person." 1/x

https://twitter.com/JamesMartinSJ/status/1535964608133050372

Father Martin well knows that Jesus is a divine Person. But Jesus also has a human operation--what John of Damascus calls his human "energy"--that enables him to act in a human manner.

Granted, Thomas Aquinas, centuries after John, will distinguish "operation" from "being." 2/x