A report that Mgr Ricca has resigned

In a comment on Fr Ray Blake’s blog post concerning the Ricca affair, Deacon Augustine refers readers to a report that the Monsignor has resigned from all his posts. The report is publicised by a Swiss Catholic site, the name of which I can’t make out, and the news is said to originate from the French agency I.MEDIA. Here is my translation:


Caught by revelations about his homosexuality, Mgr Ricca is said to have presented his resignation to the Pope.

After the revelations in the Italian weekly I’Espresso about his homosexual activities, Mgr Battista Ricca, recently named prelate of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), is said to have presented his resignation to Pope Francis, the I.MEDIA agency in Rome has learnt.

The Italian prelate, who spoke with the Pope on 20th July, is reported to have given up all his responsibilities at the Vatican, including the management of the guest-houses for priests in Rome. On the 18th July, L’Espresso published many details about the homosexual relationship of the prelate with a former officer of the Swiss army when he was working at the nunciature in Montevideo, from 1999 to 2001. The Vatican responded by asserting that these revelations were “unreliable”.

(I have decided not to translate the final sentence of the report.)

The Bishops, too, are Sheep

This program is from ChurchMilitant.TV

It has been some time since I have been able to compose anything on my blog.  The cursor refused to appear - goodness knows why.  Suddenly it is back again, I'm happy to say.

Supertradmum of Etheldreda's Place has linked to this wonderful video from ChurchMilitant.TV, in which Michael Voris interviews Bishop Athanasius Schneider.  I strongly urge you to set aside the 35 minutes or so, make yourselves a cup of something, and sit down to savour Bishop Schneider’s words. As you will no doubt recall, he is the bishop who has urged that a new kind of Syllabus of Errors be published, formally setting out the correct and incorrect interpretations of certain passages in the documents of Vatican II.

These are some of the gems, with rough timings. I haven't noted the source documents for most of them, but I’m sure most of you will recognise the sources.

7:44 onward: The bishops, like us, are sheep; and Peter is their shepherd as well as ours.

9:14 onward: The government of the Church by the college of cardinals is not continuous, it is extra-ordinary. Continuous government by the college is not the structure Christ gave us. At times, the Church went for some centuries without a council being convened, and the Pope continued to govern the Church during those times.

10:45 onward: The assertion that Christians and Moslems believe in the one God must be clarified. Two substantially different levels of belief are involved: natural faith, which is theirs, and the supernatural faith which comes to us by revelation.

17:00 onward: Lumen Gentium states that the summit of creation is Man. But in fact the summit is God. The idea and practice of anthropocentrism are dangers for humanity and for the Church. The sin of Adam and Eve was anthropocentric.

Just a few notes, but I hope they will whet your appetites.

For the record: Today I heard the P-word.

It may be useful for Catholic bloggers to keep a tally of their sightings - or rather, their hearings - of the Pelagianism word in the wild.  I heard it today, somewhere in deepest Gloucestershire. The speaker was a priest. He was expressing his pleasure at discovering the Vatican Information Service's extracts from the Pope's homilies, delivered at his Masses at the Domus Sanctae Marthae. 

He liked the fact that Francis was inclined to deliver his homilies unscripted.  He had noted the Pope's comment in one of the homilies that the Catholic Church had made mistakes in the past.  He had also been struck by what he understood to be Francis's reservations about meditation.  According to the priest, the Pope had suggested that meditation could be an expression of, or be influenced by, Pelagianism.

I remember Pope Francis's scenting of possible Pelagianism on the part of the kindly Argentinian Catholics who had presented him with a spiritual bouquet of Rosaries.  But I have not heard of any other links made by him, in other contexts.  I'm reluctant to wade through all the homilies since the Pope's election, but I'd be interested to know if any readers have heard the P-word other than relating to the Argentinian incident.  I don't necessarily expect a comment if you don't feel like posting here, but I'll look out for any posts on this subject in the Catholic blogosphere.  I have a feeling that Pelagianism - or some caricature or misrepresentation of it - is going to be the new stick with which to beat the more orthodox or traditionally-minded Catholics.

I suspect the roots may lie deep in the past, in an episode of "Father Ted", when a parishioner said "I hear you're a Pelagian now, Father .... "


Picture from 127project.net, via Google Images

The Thoughts of Pope Francis

Whoever would have thought to see a picture of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book on a Catholic blog?  Our good but somewhat variable Holy Father astonishes us time and again with a pithy phrase which goes to the heart of very important matters.  Such is the case with his recent exhortational homily at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, reported in the Catholic Herald.  In a situation of sin, or even faced with a temptation to it, "Run away and do not look back!"

Repeatedly, the Holy Father's concentrated words offer us spiritual and moral wisdom in a very practical form. This is a pope whose epigrammatic sayings could prove most edifying when gathered together in a little book.  Or do you remember those desk calendars some people used to have on their office desks, with a motto for each day?  People still like a proper calendar: not everything is better for being online.

Catholic Truth Society, over to you!



Picture from Google Images