Dr. Jeff Mirus, one of the founders of Christendom College and President of CatholicCulture.org, has a post up ironically entitled "The importance of words." I say it is ironic because, in an effort to take a swipe at Archbishop Blase Cupich, whose first name Mirus spells incorrectly, Mirus makes a yet bigger mistake. Commenting on an article Cupich published at L'Osservatore Romano, Mirus writes:
Those who want to change the Church in essentially impossible ways constantly rhapsodize in wonderment over the spiritual essence of key documents without paying much attention at all to the texts themselves. Archbishop Cupich captured this technique well when he referred, not to the familiar spirit of the Council, but even more fulsomely to the “Spirit of the Magisterium”. One is in awe of such verbal facility. Are we now to follow the Spirit of the Magisterium, just as in past years we were urged to follow the Spirit of the Council?
Actually, here is what Archbishop Cupich published:
I cattolici nell’arcidiocesi di Chicago hanno ben accolto la pubblicazione di Amoris laetitia come espressione autentica e ispirata dallo Spirito del magistero della Chiesa.
The relevant translation of the Italian would be "authentic and Spirit-inspired expression of the Magisterium" referring to Amoris Laetitia. Not sure if they teach Italian at Christendom College, but I am told that Rosetta Stone is extending their Halloween sale on all items, so anyone looking for a Christmas gift for Dr. Mirus should consider getting him the Italian version. He should apologize to Archbishop Cupich.
At Politico, a depressing report on the litmus tests in both parties on the issue of abortion: If a political leaders breaks from the party orthodoxy, they can expect a primary challenge. The demise of the influence of the party structure itself, and its replacement by special interest fundraising groups, whose first goal is always their own maintenance, is the culprit here. One technical, but important, correction: The Hyde Amendment does not ban federal funding of abortions. It bans federal funding of elective abortions.
At RNS, the esteemed Nick Cafardi on the false charge that the Wikileaks dump showed anti-Catholic hostility on the part of key members of Hillary Clinton's team.
