Monday

The Communist Chinese have now installed a third bishop who has not the approval of the Holy See. I think it's safe to say that the little thawing of relations over the last year is over. My first thought was that the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association was behind all this, but three bishops is two too many unless the Party is on board with what's going on. As I noted last time, the Communist Party is full of technocrats who are interested in stability above all things. If capitalism gives them stability, fine. If playing games with the Holy See gives them stability, great.

I think the Party decided the benefits of the Holy See moving the nunciature from Taipei to Beijing are outweighed by the benefits of keeping a stranglehold on the official Church in mainland China. The question of course is will this backfire on them and simply lead to an even greater move to the underground Church? I think that goes without saying that yes it will.

Yesterday at Mass in the bulletin was a pamphlet printed by 'Our Sunday Visitor'. It was a rather informative debunking of THAT BOOK/MOVIE THAT SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS. With massive excerpts from Amy Welborn, debunker extraordinare, the pamphlet was educational. If anyone sat down to read it, I think they'll have come away with a basic understanding of all that is wrong with THAT BOOK/MOVIE THAT SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS. Kudos to Amy once more for her hard work.