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Damian Thompson Profile picture
Damian Thompson
@holysmoke
Associate Editor, The Spectator, presenter of its Holy Smoke religion podcast. Once described as 'A blood-crazed ferret' by the Church Times
Jul 2 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
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.
Apr 26 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The shocking hidden scandals surrounding Pope Francis – and the battle to succeed him. Me for @Unherd
unherd.com/2024/04/the-sc…
Image '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”. '
Feb 15, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
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?
Dec 8, 2022 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
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...
Dec 7, 2022 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
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:
Sep 25, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I was unfair to Cardinal Nichols earlier and I apologise. He’s restored some choir services. It is the school, not Nichols, that has disgraced itself and is withholding crucial information. My sniping at Mgr Langham was also unjustified and mean-spirited. I’m sorry, Father.
Sep 25, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
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:
Sep 16, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Let me try my hand at @Pontifex-style spiritual wisdom. I’ll try not to make it too crude a parody. So.... ‘The integrity of creation demands a new openness to the prophetic witness of native peoples, and thus a paradigmatic shift in the Church’s appreciation of the inner logic of ecology...
Aug 28, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Fascinating. Brazilian campaign against beatification of Helder Camara makes detailed claims about his pro-Nazi past. Author Raymond de Souza (Brazilian layman, not to be confused with the distinguished priest) says he knew Camara 'rather well'. Image Camara later became a cheerleader for vicious Communist regimes, says de Souza: Image
Jul 27, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I’m afraid I have defaced an article by an Australian ‘parish litrugist’ in @LaCroixInt… Image @LaCroixInt Image
Jul 25, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The Vatican response to Covid 19 is horrible: no mention of China’s guilt, nor (unbelievably) of Jesus or God. Instead, pseudo-academic bullshit. Catholics who don’t condemn this hijacking of the See of Peter deserve what’s coming: the end of Catholicism. academyforlife.va/content/dam/pa… Just look at this crap: Image
Jul 7, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Such nonsense. I think Vigano has gone off the rails, but I also believe he *did* tell Francis about McCarrick back in 2013. And Francis, not for the first or last time, chose to ignore the disgusting behaviour of one of his allies. I mean: Grassi, Danneels, McCarrick, Karadima, Barros, Maradiaga, Zanchetta… notice a pattern here, @Where_Peter_is?
Jun 26, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Full details of @catholicEW control freakery: Image Image
May 13, 2020 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
Very serious allegatons from @LifeSite. I’ve been aware of these claims for some time. Huge crisis for Cardinal Nichols. lifesitenews.com/news/english-b… NB: being an LGBT activist and former MCC minister is not a crime. Bt that’s not the story. Image @LifeSite Lifesite says McManus 'was convicted in 1999 of 11 counts of theft against Northern Counties Trust, a HIV/AIDS charity he reportedly helped to found. .. . named in a legal investigation into his role at the Barking and Dagenham Primary Care Trust.’
No denia lfrom McManus. Why?
May 1, 2020 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
Notes on @ctrlamb’s hatchet job on Cardinal Sarah in this week’s @The_Tablet @ctrlamb @The_Tablet
Apr 17, 2020 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Warning: I’m about to publish extracts from a long document. It’s an incredibly pointed and detailed criticism of the @catholicEW response to Coronavirus. I don’t know anything about the author, one Fiona McDonald (an alias?). It’s clearly written with advice from insiders. @catholicEW Image
Apr 17, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The World Health Organisation's praise for Beijing's response to the Coronavirus – when China was lying its head off – reminds me of the Vatican’s own shameful kowtowing. See below: Image Archbishop Sorondo: “China could be a model we need today to respond to globalisation, a model for the dignity and freedom of human beings, a model for the eradication of the new kind of slavery-organ trafficking.”
Apr 12, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Some photos of the London Oratory Holy Week 2019 that I commissioned last year. Image Image
Apr 11, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
… Nichols is being very strict in enforcing this (see below) Image But Bp Moth of Arundel and Brighton told priests that the Bishops’ healthcare advisor, Prof Jim McManus (not medically qualified), ‘spoke with a senior civil servant’ and it was ‘clear they hadn’t thought through the issues of infection'… they agreed they’d made a mistake’ Image
Apr 8, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
‘Coming home' – the story of how Ruth Gledhill (@RuthieGledhill), who when she was my opposite number as Times religious correspondent helped save me from alcoholism, became a Catholic. She’s now digital ed of @The_Tablet, which carries her uplifting story. Welcome, Ruth! Image @RuthieGledhill @The_Tablet Image
Mar 26, 2020 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
Beethoven’s victory over sickness and fear: new @holysmoke @spectator podcast featuring a glorious performance of the ‘Song of Thanksgiving’ played specially for us by the Opus 76 String Quartet. Please listen! spectator.co.uk/podcast/beetho… Image @spectator Here's the video of the @Opus76Quartet, who rushed to a church in Kansas City to record Beethoven’s Song of Thanksgiving just before it shut its doors. I'm so grateful, guys! *Beautiful* performance Image