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.”

✣ Meanwhile…

Researchers wonder if they have discovered the hair of a medieval saint at Romsey Abbey, Kent. Gravediggers discovered a coffin in October 1839 which contained human hair. Archaeologists are now speculating about who the hair belongs to, and suspect it could even have been a saint. Romsey’s vicar, Reverend Canon Tim Sledge, told the BBC: “The two saints are St Morwenna, who was the first abbess here, and St Ethelflaeda, who is our patron saint. And I think that’s the rather romantic, hopeful, aspirational thing about this. These two saints are unique to Romsey – no one else has ever heard of them. They are our two saintly celebrities.” Archaeologist Jamie Cameron said the hair likely came from someone who died between 965 and 1045.

✣ The president of the Pontifical Council for Culture has paid tribute to the artist Prince following his death last week. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi shared lyrics to the Prince song Sometimes it Snows in April. He tweeted: “Sometimes, sometimes I wish that life was never ending, / All good things they say, never last.” Writing in the Italian edition of the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano, Giuseppe Fiorentino hailed a “rare gift in the world of pop music, that grey world dominated by the ‘labels’ ”.

✣ The week in quotations

A pastor’s role is not to be an indulgent fairy godmother
Bishop Philip Egan
Pastoral Letter

Do not let anyone reduce the greatness of the American dream to free contraceptives
Cardinal Donald Wuerl
Mass for Life for students in Washington

This could be my death sentence
Christoph, an Afghan refugee in Austria seeking to become a Catholic
Kurier (Austrian newspaper)

Politicians may get aggressive towards churches that resist
Bishop Bernt Eidsvig of Oslo on same-sex weddings
CNS

✣ Statistic of the week

100,000
Teenagers in St Peter’s Square on Sunday
Source: CNS