Tea at Trianon: The Plot Thickens

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, October 31, 2020

The Plot Thickens

I continue to be bemused by all the people, including some Catholics, who are under the impression that every casual utterance of the Pope is not only to be obeyed but has the power to change doctrine. No pope has the power to alter the laws of God and the natural law. Popes cannot change doctrine but on some occasions they can define or clarify it to respond to the crises of the time. But the Pope is not like the oracle of Delphi whose every utterance should be taken as a message from heaven. I am beginning to miss the Middle Ages when the pope and the emperor would fight it out.

We should be able to trust the Pope. But there were popes who favored Arianism, and popes who plotted to kill people, and popes whose mistresses and illegitimate children lived at the Lateran palace. Popes who give scandal or sow confusion have a lot to answer for.

From Crux:

Questions swirled Thursday about the origins of Pope Francis’s bombshell comments endorsing same-sex civil unions, with all evidence suggesting he made them in a 2019 interview that was never broadcast in its entirety.
The Vatican refused to comment on whether it cut the remarks from its own broadcast or if the Mexican broadcaster that conducted the interview did. And it didn’t respond to questions about why it allowed the comments to be aired now in the documentary “Francesco,” which premiered Wednesday.

In the movie, which was shown at the Rome Film Festival, Francis said gay people have the right to be in a family since they are “children of God.” (Read more.)

An open letter to the American Catholic Bishops, HERE.