A few thoughts on the “implications” that @DouthatNYT sets out here:

First, Francis has been quite consistent in his approach from the start of his pontificate, as has the conservative reaction against him. Read the coverage of 2013-15 ...

1/18 (God help you all)

https://twitter.com/DouthatNYT/status/1737151100044652797

You see the same fears of a catastrophe and “schism” and “confusion” from the beginning. Francis’ pastoral approach to gays/remarried Catholics/single moms etc is also the same. Always has been. No matter what he does he is “destroying the church” or behaving as a “dictator.”

Before Sinead O’Connor disappears from the timeline I think it’s important in honoring her legacy and also getting the history and dynamic of the Catholic clergy abuse scandal to clarify a few things... 1/17

https://twitter.com/RickGarnett/status/1685412812997160960

One is that despite efforts to denigrate her and her actions in denouncing church abuse during her 1992 SNL appearance or even, as in Rick's case, to deny that she was addressing clergy abuse let’s be clear: she was talking about clergy abuse. 2/17

Ross Douthat’s column this week on Vatican II occasioned a lot of eye-rolling by Catholics who are used to his “just-so story” of Catholicism—assertions with little foundation but lots of flourishes. Still it is good to push back on some of his more questionable claims…1/21

https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1580413594638094337

Douthat’s argument is that the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) “failed” and its reforms and renewal led instead a swift and widespread decline. That is actually belied by both the numbers and distribution...2/21

1/11 I wrote this piece for The @ConversationUS to make several points. A summary ...

"Pope Benedict faulted over sex abuse claims: New report is just one chapter in his – and Catholic Church’s – fraught record" theconversation.com/pope-benedict-… 2/11 First, the focus on "what Ratzinger knew and when he knew it" in overseeing abusive priests in Munich in 1977-82 is understandable--a direct link, smoking gun! But it will be hard to ascertain the truth given the passage time and changing laws, and B16 is almost 95. And...

This @civcatt essay by the Jesuit Diego Fares is the deepest dive I have seen into the theology of the Pixar film "Soul" and is the most appreciative of Pete Docter's vision:

‘Soul,’ The imaginative ‘big before’ of our lives | La Civilta Cattolica laciviltacattolica.com/soul-the-imagi… Fares SJ focuses on the idea of "spark" and "purpose," the notion of "The Great Before"--how our preexisting souls are shaped--and vocation. The latter idea is what another Jesuit, @JamesMartinSJ focused on in this wonderful conversation w/Pete Docter:

Cancel culture? Last month the CEO of Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington released a video expressing solidarity with the BLM movement and condemning racism.

As the Spokesman-Review reported, Rob McCann said ...

spokesman.com/stories/2020/j… ... he himself was a racist and white Catholicism shared that fault. “We simply cannot stand outside of something as significant as this movement, even though we know full well there may be a price to pay for walking into it.”

This week McCann began to pay that price ...

.@austeni starting his lecture @CRCfordham titled" Pope Francis: Reform and Resistance" introducing his new biography, "Wounded Shepherd: Pope Francis’s Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church." @austeni @CRCfordham "The dogs are barking, it's a sign we are moving ahead," Austen says Francis likes to say. Ivereigh makes a distinction between criticism and opposition. Pope welcomes criticisms; he is self-critical. Then there is "the opposition of the evil spirits"

"We have a liturgical rite for the ordination of women deacons that is 400 years older than the earliest liturgical rite for marriage," says @GDemacopoulos at @CRCfordham panel on women deacons. "Let that sink in." @GDemacopoulos @CRCfordham "There is absolutely no doubt that there was a female diaconate in the early Church," says @GDemacopoulos

He wants to get that out there. "Anyone who says anything differently should not be taken seriously."