Mike Lewis Profile picture
Editor of https://t.co/ooZ429ghR8 @Where_Peter_is. Trying to be more synodal this Lent.
M Nichols Editor Profile picture Mike Lewis Profile picture Fr Andrew Doohan, Catholic Priest Profile picture 3 subscribed
Mar 10 17 tweets 6 min read
Some Catholics apparently think the continuity of every doctrinal development must be mapped out to their personal satisfaction in order to be legitimate.

This inverts the Church's position, which is that the authentic Magisterium decides what's in continuity and what isn't. 1/ Image When the Church promulgates a teaching on a matter of faith and morals, Canon Law (based on the teaching in Lumen Gentium 25 from Vatican II) calls on the faithful to grant assent to it according to the intention with which it was promulgated. 2/ Image
Dec 26, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
There may have been confusion about "couples" and "unions" in the mainstream media on the first day, but now the major outlets - NYT, BBC, Washington Post, CBS, ABC, NPR, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Guardian - have the more accurate wording.

"Catholic" outlets? Not quite so much. Image NPR article's first three paras are pretty clear.

npr.org/2023/12/18/122…
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Oct 11, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
A few things @DrKwasiewski fails to note, in his mean-spirited and melodramatic response to the parody:

- The author of the satire is a former SSPX priest. Kwasniewski gives this "rebuttal" as if he is some kind of ignoramus who is unfamiliar with radtrad arguments. 2) @DrKwasniewski (and DiPippo) concede the author's first point. How do they *know* that "the author has no idea" why "Quo Primum did what it did"? Why would the author not have learned the reasons in his SSPX formation? Image
Sep 28, 2023 30 tweets 6 min read
In light of the doubts many Catholics have about Pope Francis and his orthodoxy, and because many practicing Catholics are worried about the Synod, I re-share this article about my own growth in understanding about the role of the pope and Magisterium.1/

wherepeteris.com/finding-orthod… I think I can relate pretty well to many of the fears and concerns of conservatives and traditionalists today, especially with regard to their worries of a hostile takeover of the Church by modernists and leftists.

2/
Sep 4, 2023 10 tweets 6 min read
🧵
On the flight back to Rome, Pope Francis answered a question from Antonio Pelayo of Vida Nueva, who mentioned a recent book for which Cardinal Burke wrote the prologue, "The Synodal Process Is a Pandora’s Box."

vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2…
Image The authors of the book are affiliated with the Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) movement, a loose confederation of hardline reactionary Catholic organizations, founded in Brazil by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in 1960.
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Jul 13, 2023 13 tweets 3 min read
I've made this point before, but given the latest "debate" about the death penalty and life imprisonment, it's worth repeating. 🧵 In reality, there are three questions being debated:

1) What does the Catholic Church teach about the death penalty?

2) Is the Catholic Church's teaching on the death penalty justified?

3) should the Catholic Church change its teaching on the death penalty?
Jul 13, 2023 17 tweets 3 min read
This might be news to some Catholics, but when the Church teaches authoritatively that "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person," clever arguments don't change that, even if you think they are super convincing. 1/ There is a difference between the objective fact that the Church teaches a doctrine ("marriage is indissoluble," "torture is intrinsically evil," "contraception is immoral," "only men can be ordained to the priesthood") and the arguments of those who disagree with them. 2/
Mar 16, 2023 27 tweets 6 min read
Today's Moynihan Newsletter is 🤡🤪👽

Wherein the fugitive churchman welcomes the founding of the "International Movement of Russophiles."

TWO DOZEN US BISHOPS PUBLICLY VOUCHED FOR THIS GUY AGAINST POPE FRANCIS.

Not a single one has publicly retracted.

Think about that. 1 ImageImageImage Paging George Weigel. Neoconservative foreign policy: how far we've come in a few short years. 2

firstthings.com/web-exclusives… ImageImage
Jan 2, 2023 8 tweets 4 min read
Reactionary and inattentive admirers, maybe.

"It seems very hard for any admirer of Benedict to look at the events that followed his resignation and see a vindication of his decision to retire"

@DouthatNYT at his absolute worst here. 1/

nytimes.com/2023/01/01/opi… No pope is perfect. Some of Benedict's pastoral and administrative decisions were disastrous. Some of @Pontifex's decisions may prove to be disastrous as well. But to fail to see the internal continuity and the mutual admiration between them is willful blindness. 2/
Dec 31, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
Perhaps too early for this, but I assume some "Benedict is (was) still pope" people follow my account.

Following the precedents of Pope St Martin I and Pope St. Eugene I, it seems like it's time to recognize Francis as pope. Martin was elected pope in 649.

Martin was carried into exile in 653.

Eugene was elected pope while Martin was in exile, in 654.

Martin died in 655.

Eugene died in 657.

Both are recognized as popes and saints by the Church.

newadvent.org/cathen/05598a.…
Dec 22, 2022 12 tweets 3 min read
Twitter is probably not a great place to crowdsource on this issue, but something I've been trying to get a sense of is (roughly speaking) how many priests appeal to the Vatican to get automatic excommunications lifted?
1/
In light of the revelation of the Rupnik case and considering the number of offices and employees the Church has dedicated to resolving such cases (DDF, Apostolic Penitentiary, Cong for Clergy) and the secrecy they operate under... is this sort of thing routine or rare? 2/
Dec 20, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
If you think priests today are bad, I am reading this new Mcgreevey book on Catholicism after the French Revolution and I am pretty sure every priest in the late 18th century and early 19th was either a political revolutionary, a heretic, or had a common law wife and 6 kids. I mean they might be just as bad in the second half of the 19th century but so far I've only gotten to the part where Pope Pius IV has to flee Rome after his Prime Minister gets assassinated in 1848.
Nov 19, 2022 10 tweets 4 min read
It's kind of telling that the best Archbishop Broglio can muster when asked if he's opposed to Pope Francis is basically "that's silly."

Let's be clear: although Francis agrees that the Covid vaccine must be voluntary (must be given with consent), he never opposed mandates. 1/ Some who have fixated on the word "voluntary" have taken this as license to grant exemptions, to treat it as if the Church said it's an equally valid option, or that skipping the vaccine could be the morally superior choice. That is not true. 2/

wherepeteris.com/pope-francis-v…
Sep 7, 2022 8 tweets 6 min read
@JLLiedl @jdflynn Because our website says Catholics should trust the Magisterium and not freak out about what the pope teaches or might teach?

It's one thing to make your voice heard on an issue under discussion. It's another thing to claim the entire discussion is part of a conspiracy. @JLLiedl @jdflynn Take for example this interview of (since 2006) PAV member Rodrigo Guerra that we published in English translation.

He clearly disagrees with some of the things proposed by his fellow members, but he stands with and trusts the pope.

wherepeteris.com/rodrigo-guerra…
Aug 27, 2022 8 tweets 3 min read
It seems that some US bishops, eager to stake out a strong position in the culture war, are being extremely sloppy in their attempts to set diocesan policies on these matters. 1/ Pope Francis has been clear (on one hand) in his opposition to what he calls "gender theory," but he has also met with people who are transgender and has been clear that no one should be turned away from the Church. 2/

google.com/amp/s/www.nbcn…
Jul 14, 2022 7 tweets 2 min read
Until Catholic conservatives figure out why the four cardinals' "dubia" was based on a flawed, simplistic, bad-willed reading of Amoris Laetitia, they will not be taken seriously, and will continue to forfeit their place in the Church's discussion about moral theology. 1/ I oppose relativism and consequentialism and proportionalism and situation ethics as much as the next guy, but JP2 Institute types need to stop tilting at windmills and accusing everyone who interprets AL correctly as a pope-worshipping modernist libertine or whatever...2/
Jun 30, 2022 7 tweets 2 min read
Surprised that many haven't figured this out by now: public pressure and media-fueled controversy will rarely (if ever) provoke a direct response from Pope Francis.

It's just how he is. The dubia, Viganò, crazy stuff random bishops say, any number of public manifestos and open letters challenging his teachings, media-manufactured culture war controversies... Knocking him off course isn't easy to do.
Jun 14, 2022 11 tweets 3 min read
I am working on a review/analysis of the 2 "Mass of the Ages" films @liturgyfilm (it may be done in several installments, we'll see), which are very well-shot and edited. I imagine part 1 would be quite compelling for those new to the subject matter. 1/

My three main qualms with Episode 1 were (1) That in the film the TLM itself was depicted cinematically but not realistically. This is a semi-technical critique, but film directors have long used chant, rising incense, processions, etc, to evoke emotions and drama. 2/
Jun 14, 2022 10 tweets 12 min read
@liturgyfilm @MatthewJLB @NLMblog @LMSChairman @RorateCaeli Working on it.

Hopefully I will have an article in the next week or so. I am looking back into Bugnini and some of the arguments made in Ep 2.

But I have made clear many times that your choice of schismatic-leaning radicals as your interview subjects is a very poor choice. @liturgyfilm @MatthewJLB @NLMblog @LMSChairman @RorateCaeli You ignored that suggestion.

I noticed that in Episode 2 you list Flanders and Kwasniewski as writers (not sure if they are credited as writers in Ep 1).

You doubled down on dissenters by adding Shaw, Hazell, and Reid, and you brought back Taylor Marshall.
May 5, 2022 8 tweets 5 min read
@BKalafut @krysia3925 CNS isn't perfect. I agree 100% that the role played by the secular press is vitally important. And yes, there are certain types of stories that you can't trust CNS to break. For example, they aren't going to go digging for bishops who may be embroiled in scandal. That said... @BKalafut @krysia3925 ... having worked closely with CNS in the past (as in literally 10 yards away) it is completely unfair to suggest that they were somehow a propaganda arm of the bishops. The point is they covered Church issues and events that secular outlets aren't interested in.
May 4, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
One of the few Catholic news outlets in the English-speaking world that covers the Catholic Church accurately, faithfully, and according to high professional standards is shutting down. This is devastating news. Looks like they've decided to shut down my old haunts in the communications department as well, six years after I was laid off.