Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 4/21/18

• As Buffalo diocese prepares to pay victims of pedophile priests, its primary source of money: parishioners
• Buffalo bishop to sell mansion to compensate clergy sex abuse victims

The nearby Catholic diocese of Buffalo, New York is preparing to settle with the victims of its pedophile priests. What goes through the minds of parishioners knowing they are personally subsidizing such a corrupt system? Several Catholic dioceses across the country have filed for bankruptcy after payouts to victims. Could Buffalo be next? In an unabashed public relations move, the bishop of Buffalo has put his 11,000 square-foot palatial mansion ($1.3-$1.9 million dollar value) up for sale to help defray the cost.

• Here Is What Pope Francis Told Crying Boy Who Asked Whether His Atheist Father Is in Heaven

Pope Francis recently comforted a young boy by telling him that his deceased atheist father was in Heaven. This is hardly a new development. Francis has said on previous occasions that atheists can merit Heaven if they are “good” and follow their conscience. Rome used to teach that only baptized Catholics in good standing could merit Heaven, but Catholicism has steadily drifted toward “all good people go to Heaven” Universalism.

• John MacArthur: Evangelical Christians Today ‘Tolerate False Gospel,’ Avoid Sanctification for ‘Relevance’

Many evangelical churches and Christians are drifting farther and farther from Biblical orthodoxy and becoming less and less tolerant of anyone who exposes a false gospel.

• Cash-strapped Catholic churches in Quebec closing, selling artifacts amid tough fight for survival
• Pittsburgh diocese prepares to consolidate parishes from 188 to 47

The Catholic church likes to blow the trumpets whenever a new parish opens in the South to accommodate transplants from the Rust Belt, but they hardly offset the hundreds of churches closing up here in the Northeast.

• EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo: ‘Good Catholics’ can’t ignore controversy over Pope Francis
• EWTN panel: Pope’s new document has ‘very, very troubling’ parts 

Catholic conservatives continue to mobilize against the heterodoxy of pope Francis. What will be the outcome of this increasing polarization within Catholicism?

• German bishops deny Pope nixed their plan for intercommunion with Protestants

I thought the liberal German bishops’ plan for Catholic-Lutheran intercommunion was a done deal, but evidently Francis is temporarily putting the brakes on further reforms because conservatives are still in a tizzy over his lifting of the ban on communion for remarried divorcees.

• Pastor Forced To Undergo Seeker Sensitivity Training After Mentioning Sin, Hell (satire)

This really isn’t much of a satire. You could attend Joel Osteen’s church or many hip mega-churches for a year without hearing “sin” or “hell” mentioned once.