✣ Highlights from the week online
Alarm over the new translation of the Lord's Prayer? Not so much.In defence of Dutch bishops LifeSiteNews.com had reported that Dutch Catholics were "raising the alarm" after bishops updated the Our Father. It said that the new translation, from "lead us not into temptation" to "lead us not into trial", was part of a tendency to ignore sin and continued the Church's decades of "destructive innovation".
But Mark de Vries, at his In Caelo et in Terra blog, said the new translation was a way of ensuring that the original text, from the mouth of Christ himself, was respected.
The amendment, he said, was a response to changes in meaning in the Dutch language.
"Not to introduce a new concept which wasn't there in the original, but to stay closer to that original meaning ... So, no, there is no revolt brewing, and neither is there an ideological agenda being pursued."
Papal ally: I didn't call cardinals 'worms'
Papal confidant Fr Antonio Spadaro has responded to accusations that he referred to four cardinals as "worms" on Twitter. In an interview with Cruxnow.com Fr Spadaro said there had been a misunderstanding. After he tweeted a picture of Lord of the Rings wizard Gandalf telling the traitor Grima Wormtongue he would "not bandy crooked words with a witless worm", it was assumed Fr Spadaro was comparing the dubia-submitting cardinals to the "worm" Grima and Pope Francis to Gandalf. Actually, he said, his picture was a reply to his own critics who had started calling him Grima.
In the interview Fr Spadaro also insisted that Amaris Laetitia was clear regarding Communion. A "questioning conscience can easily find all the responses it is seeking' if it is seeking sincerely", he said.
Not so, said John Allen, also writing for Cruxnow.com. "Despite the insistence of papal allies that everything is perfectly clear about what the deal is with regard to access to Communion, there's an important segment of the Church that just doesn't believe that's true." Moreover, "they can't simply be dismissed, because they include senior figures in the hierarchy".
Allen suggested there might be a move towards "local control" which, depending on your point of view, signals "healthy decentralisation" or "doctrinal chaos".
The priest who took on a criminal gang
Salon.com told the story of a Maltese priest who outsmarted a gang of criminals who stole a Caravaggio painting from a cathedral in Malta. Fr Marius Zerafa, a "sprightly 87-year¬old", faced ransom demands, abduction plans and even received pieces of the painting in the mail, before hiring a private detective and tracking the thieves down to a shoe factory. The painting was returned and Fr Zerafa later wrote a book about his adventures.
✣ Meanwhile…
✣'Computer geek' takes one more step towards sainthood, said the headlines in the Catholic media this week.
Carlos Acutis, a 15¬year-old Italian boy who died of leukaemia in 2006, loved computer programming, creating websites and editing comics.
One of his biggest projects was cataloguing all of the world's Eucharistic miracles. He created an online museum for them and helped to produce panel presentations that have travelled the world.
A daily Mass-goer, he once said: "To always be close to Jesus, that's my life plan." His mother, Antonia, stressed that he was a "normal boy who was joyful, serene, sincere, and helpful and loved having company".
Cardinal Angelo Scola closed the diocesan phase in the Cause last month. The next step is for Vatican officials to assess if he lived a life of heroic virtue.
✣ Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York showed off a 'high kick' while posing with the Rockettes dance troupe last month. He blessed the performers, who were starring in a production called Christmas Spectacular. EWTN host Raymond Arroyo tweeted: "It's never Advent until the @Rockettes and Cardinal Dolan appear at Radio City." The production also features a live nativity scene. Cardinal Dolan blessed the animals too.
✣ The week in quotations
Can the slightest encouragement to keep ones child be called 'moral and psychological pressure'?
Archbishop Pontier
Letter to President Hollande over a bill outlawing some pro-life websites
We feel betrayed
Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan, leader of Syriac Catholics
Le Messager interview on anti-Christian persecution
of the defence of what it means to be human
Pope Francis on protecting cultural artefacts
Message to a conference in Abu Dabi
They make me laugh
Fr Antonio Spadaro on reports the Pope was angry at the dubia
Interview with Crux
