"I don't expect members of panel shows or even Church Times columnists to be experts on Catholic Church law," writes Charles Collins. "But let’s face it, most of those who are upset with the Catholic Church for allowing Johnson to marry his girlfriend (and mother of his child) are more upset with the prime minister’s policies than his - or the Church’s - morals."

Despite its novelty – 50 years is nothing in Church time – the Synod, too, can fall into the same “functionalism” against which Pope Francis warned the Dicastery for Communication earlier this week.

It is important for the Vatican to have a Commission for the Protection of Minors. Whatever one thinks of the Center’s upgrade, it remains important that the Church have other named institutions for child protection.

The events in Ireland and Quebec are easily explained away as the Church just getting caught up in laws that are aimed at the general population. But another factor is at work: Ireland and Quebec are both flexing their muscles as post-Catholic societies.

For years, people have complained about the dumbing down of doctrine in religious education courses, but this takes the cake: Catholics literally enraged because an atheist describes Catholic teaching fairly accurately.

The idea that everything can be attributed to financial motivations is a bit of an oversimplification, to be sure, but money can present incentives that act on us -- consciously and unconsciously -- and that does does tend to make "Follow the money" a maxim worth some consideration.

Synodality has become the buzzword of the present pontificate – Pope Francis has used the Synod of Bishops as the chief tool of pushing his agenda – only, what does "synodality" mean?

To change domestic policy, or even the course of a war, it is more important to amuse the monarch than inform him, and an insinuation will work better than an argument.

In an annual address to the Roman Rota, Pope Francis said the Church-appointed judges that hear marriage nullity cases “cannot disregard the memories, made up of light and shadows, that have marked the life, not only of the two spouses but also of the children.” It was a strange complaint to bring to this tribunal, since the Rota deals in nothing but cold, legal decisions.

US President Joe Biden may be Catholic, but he is pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, and pro-transgender rights, putting him at odds with the U.S. bishops, who have set up a task force for dealing with the new president -- and questions have been raised about how a meeting between Pope Francis and Biden might play out – and whether the pontiff will take a hard line with the president on life issues.

It seems it would take Solomon to figure out how to cut State down to size, but perhaps the wisest of ancient Israel’s kings has already provided a solution: Cut the baby in half.