in the age of the Land O'Lakes statement, Catholic higher education in the USA expected a transition from "clerical/religious boards of trustees" to "lay boards of trustees", and instead what happened was a takeover by "corporate boards of trustees"
wjla.com/news/local/mar… I wrote about this years ago in @commonwealmag commonwealmagazine.org/wake-call-libe…

Conjectures of a former bystander. The "Italian way" of dealing with the sex abuse crisis
My latest in "La Croix International" @LaCroixInt
Short thread on a very personal take
international.la-croix.com/news/signs-of-… The way the Italian bishops' conference is approaching the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church reveals not only the Italian episcopate's, but also Italian Catholicism's structural "blind spot" on the matter.

short thread on bishop Barron's volume on Vatican II
The intention is to respond to traditionalists' assault against the legitimacy of Vatican II, which has been rampant for a few years now in Catholic blogs and the internet. Which is good.
ncronline.org/news/opinion/b… via @ncronline the problem is that the stunning absences from this volume undermine the anti-traditionalist attempt: Nostra Aetate, ecumenism, religious liberty. This makes this version of Vatican II very close to the traditionalists' dream to minimize Vatican II.

short thread on history and statues
Do some statues deserve to be toppled and removed? Of course. My father went to school in Italy when fascism was largely still a taboo in school programs, but thank God many fascist monuments had been removed after 1945. European culture is NOT innocent and made of lot of victims. But what are the cultures/religions that are totally innocent?
"There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism." (Walter Benjamin)

short thread on my latest in @LaCroixInt
"Pope Francis, an unusual Urbi et Orbi and liturgy in the time of pandemic" international.la-croix.com/news/pope-fran… di @LaCroixInt Christianity as style during the current pandemic, means rediscovering an elementary, basic faith that does not depend on external constructs. This is a key to understanding the importance of Pope Francis' pontificate at this tragic moment for the world and the Church.

Short thread
The political-ecclesiastical situation of a city like Ferrara is emblematic of the shift in the balance of power that many local churches in Italy are now experiencing. international.la-croix.com/news/the-polit… di @LaCroixInt Carola Rakete was arrested at the insistence of Italy's interior minister, Matteo Salvini, the emerging leader of the country's anti-immigrant League Party. Just hours after the arrest, archbishop Perego proposed that the port of Lampedusa be renamed after Captain Rakete.

Short thread
I am tempted to write something about those theologians who were advisors at Vatican II who literally ruined their health by working day and night in various commissions and help the Church develop its teaching on key issues. We owe them. I am thinking about this because lately I have read some articles on the need to restore work/life balance, do like the monks do. I totally agree on the need to resist and reject the pressure of the capitalist socio-economic system which is often dehumanizing.

Short thread on @Pontifex speech in conclusion of #PBC2019 on the abuse crisis.
1) The first part of the speech sounds alien to the Church issue. But it is not.
Francis talks about a Church not under siege by the world; not a Church separated from the world. Church in the world 2) A Church in the world in at least two meanings: 1) the Church is *in the world*, not an entity magically safe from evil; 2) the crisis is a *global* crisis for the Catholic Church.