Alexander Lucie-Smith
@ALucieSmith
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Catholic priest and writer, doctor of moral theology. Author of 'The Chemist of Catania' and 'The Nymph of Syracuse'. https://t.co/rGPS8sKbCq
UK
Joined April 2011
Brace yourselves! June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!
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Our Lady is trending on Twitter. Good news for the whole of humanity. It is August, the month of her Immaculate Heart.
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To love Catholic things, like the building of Notre Dame, but not to love the Catholic Church; to love the building deciated to her, but not love Our Lady; to love a church but not the Sacrament it houses, all this is the incoherence of the secular age.
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If you want to change the world say the Rosary every day. Just do it.
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Given that the Church in Chicago is not in a healthy state (declining numbers at Mass, parishes being closed, etc, etc) you would think its Archbishop had plenty of tasks and challenges more important than clamping down on people who actually want to go to Church.
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I can't understand why our Church has to be locked, but the supermarket next door is open.
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In keeping churches shut even for private prayer, the government is sending out a subliminal message about the way it sees religion. Christians represent the largest affinity group in the UK; being told we are less important than garden centres is not a good look.
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My candidate at the next conclave? Cardinal Zen, of course.
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Mass celebrated at Calvary. You have all been remembered.
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Gross as the Last Supper parody was, the mockery of Marie Antoinette, an innocent woman demonised by the mob and made to suffer so appallingly, represents something worse to me: the legitimisation of cruelty.
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The idea that Churches have to remain shut until July is simply outrageous. Private prayer in Church is a low risk activity.
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The election of Cardinal Zen as Pope would send the correct message to the government of China as well as to the world.
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US Bishops seem to divide 3 ways: those saying nothing; those saying the same old things that we have heard before and which have not satisfied us in the past; and a few who are clearly breaking ranks and telling it like it is. This tiny third group is showing the way forward.
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On the Fourth Sunday of Easter, 25 years ago, I was ordained priest by the late Cardinal Hume. A photo from the day.
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What would Our Blessed Lord say to lovers of the traditional Latin Mass, I wonder?.
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If Viganò is lying, release the documents and prove it.
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Just watched the funeral, which made me so sad, but there is grounds for hope too. The people in the Square, it seemed to me, clearly had Benedict in their hearts; many of the people up on the sanctuary, not so much. The people in the Square are the future.
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McCarrick has been defrocked, but Farrell is Carmelengo: the message is, while McCarrick is gone, McCarrickism will continue much as before.
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I think it is now true to say that the Pontifical Academy for Life no longer does what it was set up by Saint John Paull II to do.
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Those who caution against opening churches for private prayer, and who think of them as poorly ventilated, overheated, crowded, full of people indiscriminately mixing, lots of kissing and physical contact between strangers, have clearly mixed them up with nightclubs.
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Cardinal Ouellet's letter seems to confirm what it ostensibly tries to deny - that McCarrick was under sanctions, and that Vigano's account is substantially correct.
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If a man betrays his wife to whom he has made the most solemn vows, why should anyone ever trust him again?.
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Omicron is coming! We are all going to die! However these two facts are not related.
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Cardinal Burke may be closer to being a strong candidate at the next conclave than he was this time last week.
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So, if we pull down this, that would be OK, would it?
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The Church of England really needs to distance itself from Freemasonry once and for all. But I doubt it ever will. For Catholics, it is clear. Masonry and the Catholic faith (and membership of the Church) are incompatible.
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Any attempted ordination by a Catholic bishop, whoever authorised it, of women to the diaconate would lead to a de facto schism in the Church. The people pushing this (and the ordination of women to the priesthood) are recklessly gambling with the unity of the Body of Christ.
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Two challenges ahead for the Catholic Church: What happens when someone who opts for assisted suicide requests the Last Rites? What happens when someone who has opted to kill themselves asks (or their next of kind asks) for a Catholic funeral?.
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If Burke is your enemy and Rupnik your friend, something has gone terribly wrong, hasn't it?.
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McCarrick is the symptom, not the cause, of the disease. The disease is cronyism in the hierarchy. They all knew, but he was their friend; they circled the wagons round him; if it hadn't been for the press and the anger of the laity, McCarrick would still be a cardinal.
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The idea that Rupnik is a great artist is simply not true, and to those asserting he is, we understand you: you are attached to the ideology that Rupnik represents.
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The Pontifical Academy for Life seems to have adopted the mission of undermining the ministry of the clergy, who, following Saint John Paul II, proclaim the Gospel of Life. It makes me very sad.
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If priests are invited to use their discretion, this puts an intolerable burden on them when it comes to dealing with such requests.
Pope Francis appears to open the door to same-sex blessings in his response to dubium no. 2, saying that priests may use their discretion in giving such blessings, so long as they don’t imply a same-sex union is equivalent to a heterosexual marriage:. a) The Church has a very
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Benedict XVI made a significant contribution to the Church. More than most, he understood that the crisis facing the Church was theological and liturgical, for our liturgy is informed by our theology.
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Catholic evangelisation has three powerful weapons left in its armoury, it seems to me, and we should make more of these:.
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I would welcome a motu proprio against bad Church music and liturgical abuses in general.
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Friday is the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
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The biggest challenge facing the Church today is the decline and in some cases impending extinction of religious orders, male and female. Why does no one talk about this? Where did it all go wrong?.
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At 5am this morning I celebrated the Divine Sacrifice of the Holy Mass in the Tomb of Our Lord. All my friends and all who have asked for my prayers were remembered. The server insisted told me all priests liked to have their picture taken, and I felt I could not refuse.
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I am praying for Cardinal Pell. And I know I am not the only one.
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If we Catholics want a more synodal Church, the solution is clear: adopt the Anglican model. That is a wonderful example of how synodality works and where it leads. Oh, wait.
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On a day when workers are expected to travel on packed tube trains, we are not allowed to open our spacious, well ventilated and clean Churches for private prayer. How farcical is that?.
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The feast of the Immaculate Conception is coming.
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It is back to school, back to the car showroom, but we are still not allowed to visit our churches. I know I am banging on about this, but the government's failure on this is lamentable.
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Following the recent discussion on Traditiones Custodes, I am beginning to think that the attempt to suppress the Tridentine Mass will not work.
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I am incredibly disappointed that the government is intent on banning Church services and depriving us all of the comforts of public worship. What moral right have they to do this?.
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One sad thing Covid has revealed, and that is just how marginal to national life is religion and the Church.
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I am really sad at the passing of Cardinal Pell. What a truly great man and great Christian, who fought and suffered much for the faith. may he rest in peace and be rewarded for all his labours.
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If this isn't schism, what is?.
German bishops & laity vote for schism.
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Saint Sebastian, traditional protector from plague, needs to trend on twitter today, his feast.
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Why isn't Father Marko Rupnik SJ subject to the same rules as the rest of us?.
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As a Catholic I am concerned for the Uighurs, democratic activists in Hong Kong, the persecuted people of Tibet, and all the repressed Christians in China. But why is the world ignoring all this? Can the Vatican give a lead?.
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The Burke affair is a public relations disaster, though not for Cardinal Burke.
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It is incredibly insensitive to Catholic ears at least for Dr Welby even to speak of iconoclasm with approval. Does he not realise the centuries of pain and suffering iconoclasm has caused, and how impoverished we all are because of it? Has he no sensitivity?.
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So what happens now to the Christian community in Kabul?.
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There is a crisis of leadership in the German Church. These unfaithful bishops need to repent; if they refuse to do so, after a suitable interval, they should be removed and incur the loss of the clerical state.
This action is schism plain & simple. As the Vatican made clear months ago, “We cannot bless sin”. The 38 bishops who voted for this need to repent and return to the Catholic Church, the Bride of Christ.
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On the German schism: it has effectively already happened. It just hasn't been formalised yet. This suits the dissenters who can carry on trading under the name of Catholic.
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I didn't think the Rupnik story could get worse. Then it did. If he is now part of a Slovenian diocese then I am afraid all the talk of safeguarding we have heard for the last twenty years is just noise.
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Anyone who has ever been in a sacristy after Mass, let alone a cathedral sacristy after a Pontifical High Mass, will know that they are very busy places, full of people.
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The Pope calls the use of lace etc 'a scandal'. Please tell us about Rupnik and why that, by contrast, is not a scandal.
Intervento del Santo Padre alla 18<sup>a </sup>Congregazione Generale della XVI Assemblea Generale Ordinaria del Sinodo dei Vescovi -
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Canada’s mass graves scandal is looking more like a modern-day blood libel
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First thing the US Bishops need to do is sack all their lawyers. When fathers speak to children they do not do it after taking legal advice. Drop the self-defence, and speak as human beings.
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The question that we have to ask again and again is 'How did Zanchetta become a bishop?'.
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'Non-essential shops' now have an opening date, as do car showrooms. I am glad for them. But churches? This is beyond a joke.
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Statue of Henry VIII in Smithfield, London. Deeply offensive to all Catholics, and others besides, I do not doubt. If we pull this down, would that be OK?
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It is such an obvious point, but none of the Saints ever dissented from Church teaching. Conversely, those people who did were not very admirable people, eg Henry VIII, Luther, etc.
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Becciu, Zanchetta, McCarrick, and so many others: once more one asks, how did such fundamentally dishonest men become bishops? How were they chosen? Why was there no proper scrutiny? When are we going to get answers to the questions we have been asking for so long?.
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Looking at Chicago, one wonders how its current Archbishop achieved his eminent position. One does not want to believe it was through McCarrick's influence, but what other explanation could there be?.
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In 1531 the Catholic Church was in dire straits. Then Juan Diego saw Our Blessed Lady of Guadalupe. And a massive revival began. The darkest hour comes just before dawn.
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Of course Black Lives Matter. All lives matter. So let us stop all killing and all wars, and in particular let us protect the most vulnerable, those who are at the end of life and those at the beginning. Let's end euthanasia and abortion. All lives matter.
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I hate so say this, but, if a parish priest steps out of line even a little bit, they come down on him like a ton of bricks; but Rupnik, that is altogether different. And how are we meant to feel about that?.
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When are we getting the inquiry into the McCarrick scandal that we were promised by the US bishops? Is someone or something blocking it? And how is McCarrick's canonical trial progressing?.
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A lot of people tweeting about their grief re the Notre Dame fire; some of them are people who have opposed Catholic teaching for years. I'm sure their grief is genuine, but it leaves me asking why they can love a Church building and yet not love the Church that built it.
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I am very disappointed by the decision to ban so called private Masses in Saint Peter's. This smacks of Italian control-freakery. What is the harm of a priest celebrating alone or with a small congregation?.
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The Zanchetta story is bad news for all Catholics, not just those personally involved. We had hoped that this sort of thing was over. Not a chance.
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Now that we have got the McCarrick Report and learned the lessons of it, this means no more dodgy men with murky backgrounds appointed as cardinals, right? Or have I got this wrong?.
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Ordaining female deacons would gravely damage the Church
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This was no 'godless attack'. It was religiously motivated. An attack not just on people, but on Catholics, and Catholics gathered for Mass. The target tells you something about the motivation, surely? I know Dr Welby wants to help, but obscuring the truth is not helpful.
I'm praying for the nation of France, and for the friends and relatives of those murdered in Nice today. That this should have taken place in church, a house of prayer, underscores the godlessness of the attack.
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Cardinal Wuerl is still in his job. Why? Remind me, someone.
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The big giveaway in Fiducia supplicans is the announcement that there will not be clarifications or further pronouncements. In other words this is it, make of it what you will, and a licence to do as you please. The floodgates will open, if indeed some wish to open them. Many.
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Lots of clergy have spent years trying to promote a sense of the sacred and reverence in liturgy; then along come leading clergy who say that the house of God is 'only a building', undoing years of hard work. What an own goal.
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There were no mass graves in Canada. This wasn't a mistaken belief that there were, it was a deliberate intention to mislead.
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Who will safeguard us from the culture of death, now that parliament has signalled it will not do so any more?.
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Covid has been a disaster for the Church because it has allowed the government to take a close interest in liturgical matters, and once governments extend their powers, they rarely relinquish them.
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Cardial Marx has a monthly stipend greater than the annual stipend of most UK priests. A poor Chuch for a poor people would be nice.
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Defund the German bishops. Make the Church great again.
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As someone who loves Cardinal Burke and is in awe of his faith and devotion, I wish him well. @cardinalrlburke.
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Following the Colston verdict, we Catholics can now surely deface or destroy all images of our historical oppressors with impunity. But where to start? Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Cromwell, the choice is huge, not to mention all those pictures of Luther etc in galleries.
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The sad truth is that a certain Cardinal is not a very good theologian. Theology is, as Aquinas said, a 'science', that is something capable of precise definitions and distinctions. It is not, and should never seem to be, a mess, linguistic or otherwise.
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I think the Freemasonic connection will truly shock the Italians, who are very hazy on Anglicanism, but very aware of the Masons. It may be that that has galvanised them into doing something about this. Incidentally letting Bp Baker use the Lateran when so many devoted Catholic.
JUST IN: Vicar for St John Lateran expresses “deep regret” over Anglican bishop & clergymen celebrating Protestant liturgy on main altar of the Basilica “in contravention of canonical norms.” Says the “unfortunate episode was caused by a breakdown in communication.” Translation👇
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What exactly was Ms Markle hoping to achieve? What was her husband hoping to achieve?.
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