Tuesday, December 31, 2019
First Cow
Monday, December 30, 2019
A Hidden Life
The Gospel According to Terrence Malick
August Diehl and Valerie Pachner, stars of "A Hidden Life," on what it's like to work with cinema's most famous recluse
Reflections on Filmmaker Terrence Malick and His Rumored Life of Christ
Terrence Malick’s ‘A Hidden Life’ is an Example of What Great Christian Art Can be
The Not-So-Secret Life of Terrence Malick by Eric Benson
The world’s most private director turns his lens on the place where he’s always been most public: Austin.
Terrence Malick and the Christian Story by David Roark
Brad Pitt talks about Terrence Malick and The Tree of Life
What happened when Hollywood's most photographed actor teamed up with Terrence Malick, its most reclusive and paparazzi-shy director? Brad Pitt tells all
"Sinicization"
Be warned: the thaw between the Vatican and Xi Jinping brings the faith one step closer to sinicization.
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Democracy Too Soon?
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Mere Rhetoric?
Friday, December 27, 2019
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Define Justice for Us, Holy Father
Here we have the following issues:
1. Judging that particular actions are to be categorized as forms of injustice.
Which is consequent upon:
2. The claim that certain actions according to their species are forms of injustice.
Neither claim is explicitly linked by Pope Francis to Sacred Tradition, and it is doubtful that he could make such a claim, even if he were to cite the hospitality required of the Israelites, as that precept would have to be analyzed first (an obligation imposed upon them by God as a way of showing gratitude or recognition that they had been delivered from bondage after being treated badly in Egypt or something of the Natural Law?).
What constitutes inhospitality? And how is it a form of injustice? What is justice or injustice? How is the word justice used in the Greek scriptures or the Hebrew?
Pope Francis makes a lot of assumptions in his claims but are his assumptions supported by what the Latins consider the Magisterium? To what authoritative documents could he cite for support?
One would think that if a pope wanted to be magisterial on this point then he would write a document on this issue, an exercise proper to a bishop acting as moral theologian with the clarity required of a bishop of Rome acting in accordance with Rome's claims about the papacy.
Christmas 2019: Woke Pope Attacks ’Walls’
Migrants Centerpiece of Annual Message: ’Injustice rejects them and makes them die’
Shades USA from Vatican: Knocks ’Inhumane detention camps’
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Monday, December 23, 2019
How to Enforce Accountability?
Rod Dreher: Cardinal Sodano Deserves A MillstoneNo molester himself, but he was biggest protector of Father Maciel -- who personally abused 60 boys, says new report
A National Platform
Unlike American conservatives who prefer decentralization of power, the Vox party is centralist. It would abolish the regional parliaments of the 17 autonomous communities and create a unitary state with provinces as the next level of government.
Thus, Vox opposes the Catalan independence movement and is stronger in parts of Spain where people identify as Spaniards and not as Catalans or Basques.
SAID IN SPANISH: VOX’s Victory—Spanish Patriots Get A Spain-First Voice In Parliament
First That Statue of Migrants and Refugees and Now This
The recently unveiled cross carrying the life jacket of an unknown migrant, now hanging in the Vatican, raises serious questions and concerns, as the Crucifix for Christians knows only one occupant: Jesus Christ.
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Is Leadership Tyranny?
Saturday, December 21, 2019
Yes, But...
The question really should be, "Can a Christian be a statist?" -- Can a Christian be a Nationalist? by Marc Barnes
Related:
Even Conservative Inc. Operatives Know Nationalism Can't Ignore Race. Will Hazony/ Lowry-Style Neutered Nationalists Get The Memo?
Latins, You Have Problem
via Rod Dreher: It's the Child Abuse, Stupid
What is Noteworthy is the F:M Ratio
Image of 15 black medical students posing at Louisiana plantation goes viral https://t.co/bUhkvg32uw pic.twitter.com/RPeiGwfgsB
— The Hill (@thehill) December 21, 2019
Friday, December 20, 2019
Master Leia or Master Organa? Not Mistress Solo.
What a screwed up mass culture.
He Doesn't Wear the Pants in the Family
Self-deprecating humor can tell you a lot about a person. This is someone who people unironically believe will be a leader. pic.twitter.com/g0SgO5B9Yv
— Mack (@_Kenziepuff) December 20, 2019
The wannabe Tiger FLOTUS...
On the wrong tack...
The last symposium for the Huffington Ecumenical Institute: Immigration and Healing with Ecumenical Dialogue: West, East, Orient, and Refugees
The Two Actors of The Two Popes
Two Popes, Too Many Untruths by John Waters
Nathaniel Peters on A Hidden Life
Happy Anniversary!
Fifty Years On by Fr. George W. Rutler
The year of 1969 was a time of the finest and the worst, when most institutions, equipped with the polished trophies of new science, seemed to be having a mental [...]
A Tribute to Father Rutler by Crisis Magazine
Editor’s note: Fr. George William Rutler was ordained in the Anglican Church 50 years ago today. All of the friends and followers wishing to mark the occasion with him wouldn’t [...]
Thursday, December 19, 2019
What is George Lucas's Legacy?
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Pope Francis's Mistake on Nationalism
But Roberto Pertici is wrong too about the nationalism that is tied to the state, as it serves the state and not the other way around.
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Monday, December 16, 2019
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Friday, December 13, 2019
FSSPX
Interesting article on the SSPX community in St. Marys, Kansas.
— Scott Greer (@ScottMGreer) December 12, 2019
Fervent religious communities blocking out the modern world seem more like the future than integralism https://t.co/RG8TTcRvB7
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Fr. Woznicki Reviews A Hidden Life
This is a film that will challenge viewers to embrace the true, good, and beautiful as presented through the transcendent and eternal values of love and marriage, family, loyalty to God and country.
Sexual Revolution
Dig deeper -- there is no sexual revolution without some form of radical egalitarianism for women, probably. Why? Because... pareto principle.
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Monday, December 09, 2019
Sir Anthony
"People ask me questions about present situations in life, and I say, 'I don’t know, I’m just an actor. I don’t have any opinions.'" https://t.co/gUPVcTlx39
— Interview Magazine (@InterviewMag) December 8, 2019
Trump Derangement Syndrome in Hollywood
The best part of this trailer is the use of "Blue Monday" by New Order.
This Does Not Reflect Well on Francis
Breitbart: Vatican Bishop: ‘China Trusts Pope Francis’
Sunday, December 08, 2019
Team VTAC Episode 69
Episode 69 Sensei James Williams and old buddy Brian Williams, we talk about the modern Samurai https://t.co/pCeQ5zGD8k
— Kyle Lamb (@VikingTactics) December 6, 2019
Saturday, December 07, 2019
Friday, December 06, 2019
Rich Lowry Trying to Sell a Book
But what exactly does Lowry mean by “nationalism”? Lowry approvingly quotes Anthony Smith, who defines nationalism as “a belief that all those who shared a common history and culture should be autonomous, united, and distinct in their recognized homelands.” We can break this down into two distinct propositions, both once widely held but now sharply contested.
A relic of 20th ce Yankee civic nationalism.
Thursday, December 05, 2019
Too Old to Be A Boomer
Sandro Magister: A Pope With the “Myth” of the People
What if all Latin Catholic mass media outlets were to go out of business?
CNA/CWR: Pope Francis tells Jesuits he is shocked by anti-immigration narratives in Europe
This is amusing:
“I dream of a young Church, very close to the people, fresh," Pope Francis said.
In so far as his patriarchate has been corrupted by liberalism, it is dying and deservedly so. He cannot see the divine chastisement that is taking place.
Wednesday, December 04, 2019
Andrew Yang Gang
Not sure what’s weirder: A candidate having supporters get on their knees so he can shoot whipped cream in their mouths or supporters who would get on their knees so a candidate could shoot whipped cream in their mouths. pic.twitter.com/CnhkrDT31V
— Brandon Darby (@brandondarby) December 3, 2019
Should Have Spent Some Money on Using the De-Aging Software
Monday, December 02, 2019
Sunday, December 01, 2019
Saturday, November 30, 2019
The Gospel of Niceness
As for his demeanor -- did he talk and act more like a mom or a dad? I have witnessed male teachers who act the same way with their students -- has something about their psychic development been stunted? Or is their behavior rooted in something physiological?
Why Mister Rogers Is More Relevant than Ever by John Pattison
Fr. Martin’s Neighborhood by Kevin Wells
Tom Hanks interview
Friday, November 29, 2019
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Archbishop Cordileone's Homily for the Mass of the Americas
After Tepeyac, Mexico became Catholic. Our Lady of Guadalupe unites the Old World and the New, and so a new Christian people is formed from the two—a mestizo people. A new Christian civilization is born from the union brought about by her venerated as both la Morenita and la Inmaculada.
The significance of this unparalleled historical event, especially in the Americas, was not lost on Pope St. John Paul II. In his apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, he writes:
The appearance of Mary to the native Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac in 1531 had a decisive effect on evangelization. Its influence greatly overflows the boundaries of Mexico, spreading to the whole Continent. America, which historically has been, and still is, a melting-pot of peoples, has recognized in the mestiza face of the Virgin of Tepeyac, “in Blessed Mary of Guadalupe, an impressive example of a perfectly inculturated evangelization.”
How is that Christian civilization doing in Ibero-America? And that Christian civilization, if it ever existed, is not the same as the Anglo-American civilization that existed in the United States and Canada.
The Church is our mother: A mother welcomes, nourishes, consoles, and unites. Where do newcomers in a strange land turn when they feel disoriented, afraid, or unwelcomed? They turn to the Church. For Catholics especially, the Church is home wherever they are in the world.
He comes close to making an overt political statement here that is related to immigration. Immigrants may feel at home in a church, especially if it is one that speaks their language. How long will that last? Fortunately no other political claims are made in this homily.
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Don't Be Rod Dreher
Conservatives At The Maginot Line by Rod Dreher
A Maginot Line bunker. Conservative churches today are the culture war equivalent (Alainolympus/Getty Images)
The thing is, the timidity of conservative Christians is a big part of it too. As I wrote earlier today, gay activists in a Michigan parish are trying to get the priest kicked out because he refused communion to an openly gay lesbian who is married to a woman. The activists have no problem going public, even on television, with their demands. But none of the supporters of the priest in the parish dared to show their face on camera. I get that — they don’t want to be identified as “haters”. But that cowardice has a lot to do with why conservatives are losing this fight, and will lose this fight. If we have nothing to be ashamed of, then why do we act like it? Why do we conservatives expect leaders — priests, politicians, and whatnot — to take controversial, costly public stands when we won’t do it ourselves?
Easy for him to say this when he's already secured a journalist sinecure. Let him speak about this when he is at risk of doxxing and cancel culture.
The Francis Effect
Singaporean Feminist Cinema?
Armani
More SJW Idiocy from Francis
'Open arms' to refugees - pope in Japan
Francis says seeking success at any cost leads to unhappiness
Pope’s message of openness to refugees prompts social media backlash in Japan
Seems scandalous for the Japanese -- they are probably even less inclined to consider becoming Catholic as a result of this.What a winning evangelization strategy -- alienating potential converts with SJW advocacy that is not even justified by Sacred Tradition. Francis is a chastisement, and part of the problem with the development of the patriarchate is that no Latin bishop believes himself capable of offering a direct objection to the patriarch -- objections have to be couched in "dubia" or a petition for the pope to present clear teaching.
Cardinal Burke said any sort of "fraternal correction" has to be made privately first -- so has any Latin bishop attempted this in the past 4 years?
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Monday, November 25, 2019
Lecturing Mode
Why would anyone not Catholic submit to this?
Sunday, November 24, 2019
FOX's Modern-Day Western?
The first trailer:
Of course his wife is tougher than he is, and has to tell him to man up.
Catholic Politickin'
It is the belief of this pro-life leader that those who consider abortion as merely one issue among others see abortion as just that—an issue. They don’t see 60 million dead people.
The judgment that life is a fundamental human good upon which others are founded is not identical to the claim that abortion is the most serious political problem, the first which must be addressed, nor is the latter simply a conclusion of a reasoning process from the first.
As for the "prudential" judgment about what is the worst problem? What is the fundamental problem or the fundamental injustice? I would argue that it is not abortion, which is a consequence of the problem, but the state. This judgment of particular circumstances is not the provenance of bishops or clerics but of the people who are members of a community or subject to the power of the state. The appropriate and morally correct response too may be outlined by Roman Catholic moral theology (but it hasn't really) but the judgment of whether circumstances warrant it, well, that too is left to the judgment of the people and not to clerics.
If the state is the source of all ills, we can then ask whether voting can remedy it, or whether we can only vote in order to address a limited set of issues.
The latest by James Kalb isn't of much help, unfortunately. Church and State today: What should Catholics do with politics?
Saturday, November 23, 2019
A Definition of Community with Which Statists Would Be Pleased
Junger is wrong on this score:
Yeah, I mean, so first of all like the idea of banning the car, I was speaking very theoretically like if there were no cars, the communities would regain some vibrancy. But I’m suggesting we do that. I don’t think it’s feasible. But you as sort of a mental experiment, I think that would probably do it. So what I find is that people have a real longing to feel like they belong to something and they say the phrase, I'm looking. I haven't found my tribe yet. Which means you’re not going to…I mean, if you’re looking for tribe, your tribe is around you. Your tribe is your community.
You might say that there are people with sort of similar interests. Like say your sports fans or whatever. That’s different from your community and sometimes they word tribe and community get conflated. They’re actually somewhat different things. So I think the safe way to talk about it is, when you look out the window, the people that you…the houses that you see and the people that you see, that’s your community. And those are the people you need to connect with. Even if you might have more in common with people that live across town just because you’re part of a kite flying club or something or whatever.
But it’s the people around you in the neighborhood that are your community. Communities are really different, and I don’t know how to…I can't give you a sort of one-size-fits-all like how to create and bond in a community. But you have to…I think a crisis will immediately spur sort of community commitment by people. So you have to figure out how to create that commitment without a crisis and I don't quite know how to do that. I think it’s a real problem. I think people are reluctant to do it, when they don’t need to. Hold on one more second. They just had to test it. So I honestly don't know what the solution is and I'm not sure there really is a very good one.
Peak Prosperity Interview with Sebastian Junger
So if you can't defend yourself against an outside group like that, you’re in enormous danger. That's one great threat to the welfare of a community. The other great threat is the community splitting because of that moral conflict. Often those moral conflicts are the results of unfairness. So unfairness within the society can be as dangerous as an enemy outside the society and typically, they’ve done a lot of genetic studies of this. Liberalism and conservatism are not just political ways of thinking in modern America. They those says of seeing the world go way, way back and they’re genetically encoded into us.
So there are genetic conservatives whose primary fear is threat from the outside. Conservatives are oriented toward an outside threat in a very basic sense. Genetic liberals are oriented towards an internal threat. An abuse of power. Unfairness. That kind of thing. The genetics for these political viewpoints are divided roughly 50-50 in the population. So essentially what you have is, in any human community about half the people they’re worried about outside threats and half the people are worried about internal problems. In a kind of stasis. I mean, you sort of need both just like you need both men and women in the society.
So the trick is to sort of balance those very, very legitimate concerns. But they’re sort of antithetical to each other. So like the _____ [00:15:47] sort of moral hierarchies that are good at protecting the society from an outside threat are terrible when it comes to things like that within the society. So that's where you need government. That's where you need wise government and you need the two opposing parties to acknowledge that each one needs the other in order to correctly…in order to protected and run the country in a proper way.
The distinction being made here is not between "conservatives" and "liberals" but between "Republicans" and "Democrats" but both parties serve the state and the oligarchy. (Whether it can be claimed that the Democratic Party, before the rise of urban mass population centers in the industrial period, was not statist I have not investigated yet.)
It is men who would be concerned both with external threats and internal threats arising from injustice committed by other men, and men who would be protecting the community from both threats and maintaining the common good and order -- men are the backbone of the republican form of polity ; female moral psychology is such that it is less concerned with justice and more with outcome, and this is of use to the state, which seeks to increase its power.
The USMC Continues to Be Converged
Friday, November 22, 2019
With What Authority?
Another appeal to natural values – if this is legitimate it should be task of the local bishops, as a representative of Catholics engaged in political life with other members of that state. But the exaggerated munera of the bishop of Rome has consequences.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
A Woke MV
Is it her make-up or is she starting to look her age?
Truly Scandalous
Pell was reportedly reprimanded for “interfering in sovereign business” by looking into the Vatican Secretariat of State’s dealings with a Swiss bank with a long track record of violating fraud safeguards.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Nor Just Industrialism
CNA/CWR: Archbishop of Tokyo: ‘Collapse of traditional family system’ a challenge for irreligious Japan
Archbishop Isao Kikuchi
“I acknowledge however that the Catholic faith not being passed on by the parents to their children is a big problem. This is due primarily to the collapse of the traditional Japanese family system in the context of our present society.”
The Japanese sense of the “traditional family system” to which the archbishop refer is straightforward: a hard-working father who puts bread on the table; a mother dedicated to keeping the wallet, house, and kids in check; the children, who spend time between the home, school, and community groups such as sports teams; and the grandparents, typically parents of the mother, who help raise the children and maintain the house as best they can.
This style of family has also been called a “multi-generational household,” and is becoming increasingly rare in Japan, especially in major metropolitan areas such as Tokyo.
“The collapse is caused by the situation in the workplace that goes along with the changing Japanese economic situation (non-regular employment, overtime, working parents),” said Archbishop Kikuchi.
“And the excessive activities in the education of children," the archbishop added, noting that extracurricular activities are held on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and students are often tied up for extra hours in "cram schools" due to the deterioration of the quality of education.
Japan’s ruthless work culture is hardly unknown. The image of the exhausted salaryman working unpaid overtime deep into the night is a symbol that is recognizably Japanese in countries around the world, and one of the most enduring stereotypes of the Japanese people.
In recent generations, women have also more frequently entered the workforce – willingly or sometimes without a choice due to the economic pressures of raising children.
Less well known, however, are the strict expectations put on middle school and high school students to join and participate in after-school groups with their peers. More than just the competitive sports teams – clubs for music, art, and dance prove to be highly demanding of children’s time.
Just as their parents are burdened with work expectations, children often spend more time out of the house than in it.
“From abroad, we even hear voices pointing out that school and community events held on Saturdays and Sundays are silently persecuting religion,” laments the archbishop.
Many athletic groups demand members to practice on Saturday and Sunday – the time when most families should be going to mass.
“In addition, such a collapse in the traditional Japanese family system has caused marriages to break down, with single mothers raising their children in poverty,” said the archbishop.
“Under such circumstances, it has become difficult to find time to bring children to church on Sundays, and likewise difficult to find time to share the faith at home.”
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Vatican Muscle
LSN: Vatican envoy tells U.S. bishops to get in line with Pope Francis in ‘bomb-drop’ address
Monday, November 18, 2019
Another Latin Cult?
Colegio Internacion Heraldos del Evangelio Femenino
1P5: Vatican Investigates Heralds of the Gospel: A Cautionary Tale
Brazilian website - the founder
US website - FB
Pope Francis appoints Brazilian cardinal to watch over ‘Heralds of the Gospel’
Heralds of the Gospel reject papal inquiry as 'illegal'
Unleash the Gospel
CWR Dispatch: As Pope Francis calls for a ‘synodal’ Church, some US dioceses are holding synods by Matt Hadro
Archbishop Vigneron on Unleash the Gospel
Unleash the Gospel
Detroit Archdiocese unveils 'Unleash the Gospel' missionary movement
Detroit Archdiocese launches new publication to build up discipleship
Everyday Evangelism for Catholics
CWR Dispatch: “All Christians are called to evangelism”
Author Cathy Duffy on the universal Christian call to spread the Gospel, and why certain approaches to doing so are more effective than others.
But how does the Christian relate to others? As an isolated individual without sex? Should women be evangelizing men?
Nothing New or Enlightening Here
To me, the promise of America, America’s exceptional place in history, is to carry forward the beautiful Judeo-Christian vision of the sanctity and dignity of the human person—created in God’s image, endowed with God-given rights and responsibilities, and called to a transcendent destiny.
So, individualism, secularism, relativism—a society where a lot of people don’t believe anymore that it’s even possible for us to know God—this is all mission territory for us as Catholics, as Christians.
We need to be salt and leaven, to use our Lord’s terms. And there’s that beautiful image from the early Church: “The Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body.”
We need to work to purify our culture and our politics, and our own hearts and intentions. And we need to work to restore the centrality of the human person, the sanctity and the mystery of the human person. At least, that’s how I see it.
Liberal exceptionalism.
Saturday, November 16, 2019
USCCB Prattling
A comment there:
All this noise about a letter that most people and in all likelihood most Roman Catholics won't read...
Clueless bishops - pastoring through useless publishing. Do the laity need another voter's guide for 2020? Bishops do not have any special competence with respect to moral theology, including that area of moral theology which would encompass moral life. Nor is their judgment regarding the conclusions of moral theology infallible. At best, it might be possible that the majority opinion regarding the soundness of a conclusion might be worthy of consideration - so long as they acknowledge that they have the option of abstaining because of their lack of competence. When bishops cannot even get the first principles of political community correct (look at the incomplete state of Roman Catholic social teaching in this regard), does it really matter what they think about political matters. At best they could give discuss evils that are prohibited and what obvious voting choices are prohibited because they facilitate or involve formal cooperation in evil. But they would also have to acknowledge that it is possible that they are ignorant about other voting choices that facilitate evil or involve formal cooperation in evil, as these are known only to the experts in the moral theology.
Friday, November 15, 2019
Veiling
It is ok in so far as it goes though I found the talk about "equality" a bit blue-pilled. And the author does not talk at all about the necessity of the virtue of modesty for women, which too is a sign of being blue-pilled.
Also from 1P5: The Catholic Identity Conference: A Call for All Catholics to Rise Up by Timothy Flanders
The mouthpiece of Tradition, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, formed the centerpiece of the conference, delivering the keynote address as well as a short talk against Communion in the hand. He has been increasingly vocal against the Vatican II springtime, which has been a welcome relief of honestly facing the crisis as it has been continuing to unravel for decades.
His comments on the liturgy were salient on this. He said the New Mass is “substantially a clear weakening of the truth of the sacrificial character of the Mass.” It represents a “shift to the Protestant meaning and sense of the meal … in the text [of the Mass] itself.” Indeed, “The Novus Ordo is the Extraordinary Form.”
What Would Endo Say Now?
CWR: Catholicism in the Land of the Rising Sun (and declining population) by Ray Cavanaugh
Japanese Catholics are such a small minority—less than half of 1 percent—that sustaining the faith throughout succeeding familial generations has been difficult.
Related:
Thursday, November 14, 2019
The USCCB VP Speaks
CNA/CWR: ‘We need to become an evangelizing Church,’ says new USCCB VP
Is what Latin Catholics have to offer to their non-believing neighbors a true witness of Christ or a scandal to those who, even if imperfectly, adhere to the Natural Law better than Catholics who have been infected by liberalism?
The New Pope
Because fiction is more humorous than reality. And it's not real. I hope Pius XIII wakes up from his coma and there is a struggle for the see of St. Peter.
The first teaser...
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Ominous Signs for the Latin Churches in the US
CWR: ‘I just wanted to be a priest’: Archbishop Gomez elected president of USCCB
The face of the modern American church, aligned with the left on issues of political order in the name of a distorted moral theology that ignores the order of charity and its analogues at the natural level, and hence irrelevant to American “conservatives.”
Only the laity can restore credibility of the Church to their non-believing American neighbors, and they will have to do it by denouncing the pronouncements of the USCCB as not being representative of Tradition or authentic apostolic Christianity. The bishops will not learn, not even if Robert Sarah were to object to their liberalism and globalism.
CNA/CWR: US bishops approve updated seminary program, Hispanic ministry efforts
Who exactly do they have to judge effective maturity? "Professionals"? Women? Celibate male clerics who have been part of the system for a while and may be part of the problem? The blind leading the blind. As for the whole sacramental theology surrounding "in persona Christi" the implications, i.e. the priest being "married to the Church like Christ, and being a "spiritual husband" should raise a few eyebrows but Latins are used to this sort of talk by now.
Bishop Felipe de Jesus Estevez of St. Augustine, Florida, in floor discussions preceding the vote, said that in the last two years both he and Bishop Andrew Cozzens, auxiliary bishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, had been working as part of a larger group on a “deepening” of understanding of priestly celibacy in seminary formation.
This understanding of clerical celibacy, he said, is “based on an effective maturity” that is “both spousal and paternal.” Estevez said that he and Bishop Cozzens would be working to publish a book on this called “Spiritual Husbands, Spiritual Fathers.”
The votes were followed by a discussion of the V Encuentro meeting of 2018, a national gathering of more than 3,000 Hispanic Catholic leaders in the U.S. The bishops discussed some of the results of the Encuentro as providing a blueprint for the future of the Church in the U.S., and how the conference needs to incorporate those results at the parish level.
More than a year after the close of the V Encuentro, the bishops voted on Tuesday to start the process of incorporating the meeting’s conclusions and findings into its strategic plan for 2021-2024.
Recently, a Pew Research report on religious identity in the U.S. found that Catholics no longer make up a majority among Hispanics. The percentage of Catholics among Hispanics fell by 10% over the last decade.
Bishop Nelson Perez of Cleveland, Ohio, said a statement from the conference in response to the V Encuentro should emphasize leadership development among Hispanic Catholics, as well as vocations to the priesthood or religious life, successful models of ministry, and a vision of the Church as a defender of social justice and human dignity.
The Latin churches are bleeding members, and the "new Catholics" are not as Catholic as they hoped. So their solution? To double down on catering to multiculturalism and diversity.