✣ Highlights from the week online
A new affliction Amoris Laetitia should be welcomed for handing back to people the “right to exercise their own moral judgments, asking their pastors for help when appropriate”, said Clifford Longley of the Tablet. But he lamented that Pope Francis had created “confusion where clarity was needed” on the question of Communion for the divorced and remarried. But is Mr Longley in danger of developing Franscogenic Panic Disorder? The new public health risk was described by Simcha Fisher at ncregister.com: “It afflicts conservatives and progressives equally, and is marked by hair pulling, teeth grinding, hypertension and a general feeling of confusion, disorientation and an uncontrollable urge to leap to conclusions”. The disorder is most likely to break out when the Pope gives an interview or issues a statement. Fisher pondered why the Pope’s approach can be frustrating to those who think he lacks clarity. She explained that he was simply “a man who responds to what’s in front of him”, or “the Pope of the immediate”. She explained: “Bernie Sanders shows up? He greets him. Muslim families need rescuing? He rescues them. This is the kind of person he is.” Bring back patens Philip Kosloski at ncregister.com asked what was behind a “new Eucharistic miracle” in Poland – where a consecrated Host fell to the floor during the distribution of Communion, was picked up and placed in a container with water, and later developed red stains. He wrote: “The miracle occurred after a Precious Host was dropped during Holy Communion” and “one cause of the miracle was a lack of care for the Blessed Sacrament”. This highlights the importance of patens – “a gold disk that is used by an altar server to hold under the mouth or hands of the person receiving Communion to catch any Hosts falling to the ground”. He noted: “The heart tissue found ‘bore signs of distress’ and maybe it was to show us Christ’s hurt when we do not take care of Him.” Resisting an exposé This week Michael Voris wrote on his site churchmilitant.com details of his past sexual sins, to pre-empt what he feared would be an exposé. Melinda Selmys at Patheos revealed that she had known Voris’s story and had considered writing an exposé herself, after Voris made some “scurrilous (and as it happened, untrue)” allegations against her. But she held back: “It’s a sin to publish other people’s private business unless there’s a grave reason to do so.” Moreover, “It might have prevented the outpouring of mercy and support that we’re seeing today from both his fans and his critics. An opportunity for healing and reconciliation would have been lost in order to score a meaningless victory in a meaningless war – a war in which egos are bolstered at the cost of communion in Christ.”
