Today

27 Jun 2022
Why the Catholic Church won’t excommunicate Joe Biden

Following Friday’s decision by the Supreme Court to overturn the 50-year-old decision Roe v. Wade, and determine that legislating the legality and limits of abortion is within the power of state legislatures, some pro-abortion activists have targeted the homes of the court’s justices. Others have laid the blame, or part of it at least, at the door of the Catholic Church. Demonstrators paraded around St. Patrick’s cathedral in New York, a city where abortion remains legal on demand up to, and including, during birth. Some online groups called for a 'night of rage' against church buildings. It is true that the Catholic Church remains, squarely and unfashionably, of the opinion that the voluntary taking of innocent human life is always a grave sin.

Why the Catholic Church won’t excommunicate Joe Biden

Thursday

5 May 2022
Holy Smoke
The Catholic Church’s muddle over Roe vs Wade
12 min listen

So Roe vs. Wade is as good as dead. Americans are about to lose their constitutional right to an abortion. Five out of the nine Supreme Court justices have drafted an opinion in their forthcoming ruling on a Mississippi abortion case which strikes down the 1973 Roe ruling as 'egregiously wrong from the start'. As we all know it’s been leaked – but it’s expected to be issued pretty much unchanged in the next few weeks because, even if they wanted to, the justices can't change their votes without appearing to succumb to political pressure. The unprecedented leaking of that draft opinion has been greeted by jubilation from religious conservatives and the degree of outrage that I don't think I've ever seen before by liberal opinion and the mainstream media, which amount to the same thing, really, in America.

The Catholic Church’s muddle over Roe vs Wade

Wednesday

13 Jan 2021
Holy Smoke
The problem of paranoia on the Catholic Right
25 min listen

Every day there’s some sort conspiracy theory being aired by right-wing Catholics on social media involving the globalist agenda of the Pope’s UN/Chinese/Masonic/Soros foundation puppet-masters. No surprise, perhaps, given the fervour with which the Pope promotes a globalist agenda while his diplomats kowtow to Beijing. Some left-wing Catholics are into the conspiracy business, too: in their imaginations it’s the feisty conservative broadcaster EWTN taking the role of the Soros Foundation.Catholic pundits with furious views have become a major headache for the Vatican – one it richly deserves, you might think, given what Cardinal George Pell describes as the ’Technicolour corruption’ lurking in the Curia, most of which goes unreported by a tame Vatican press corps.

The problem of paranoia on the Catholic Right

Tuesday

29 Sep 2020
Holy Smoke
The humiliation of Becciu and the return of Pell: what lies behind this spectacular reversal of fortunes at the Vatican?
24 min listen

The Vatican is this week in the grip of a paranoia reminiscent of the days when Renaissance popes (and their dinner guests) were forced to employ food-tasters. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, until 2018 the sostituto at the Secretariat of State – that is, the Pope's hugely powerful chief of staff – has been sacked by Francis, who has accused him of stealing vast amounts of money. It's now a matter of record that Becciu organised a series of bizarre investments, costing the Vatican hundreds of millions of dollars, in a former Harrods warehouse converted into luxury flats and an African oil company. The Pope, who once showered him with favours, stripped Becciu of all the privileges associated with the position of cardinal – a twist of the knife worthy of a Netflix drama, or perhaps one of the Godfather films.

The humiliation of Becciu and the return of Pell: what lies behind this spectacular reversal of fortunes at the Vatican?

Monday

9 Mar 2020
Holy Smoke
Has the Vatican become a mouthpiece for Beijing?
20 min listen

Last week, Pope Francis sent a message to Chinese Christians urging them to be 'true Christians and good citizens'. He didn't mention the growing persecution they face under President Xi's programme of sinicisation, despite the Vatican-China deal of 2018 under which Francis recognised China's puppet Catholic Church in return for state tolerance of 'underground' Catholics faithful to Rome.Conveniently for both sides, the text of the deal has never been made public. Essentially, the Pope kept his part of the deal while Xi has used it to try to force together the official and unofficial Chinese Catholic Churches under the umbrella of – it goes without saying – the Chinese Communist Party.In this week's Holy Smoke episode, I'm joined by regular contributor Ed Condon, Washington bureau chief of the Catholic New Agency.

Has the Vatican become a mouthpiece for Beijing?

Tuesday

25 Feb 2020