Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 11/23/19

• Former Rochester Catholic bishop, Fulton J. Sheen, moves a step closer to becoming a saint

Back in May, a New York appeals court settled the decades-old tug-of-war between the Catholic dioceses of New York City and Peoria, Illinois (the winner) over the rights to the cadaver of former archbishop, Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), allowing the Vatican to finally place the former apologist and media pioneer on the fast track to canonization. The Vatican canonizes popular candidates quickly in order to exploit their celebrity. In 1966, cardinal Francis Spellman ignominiously assigned Sheen to the bishopric of our humble city of Rochester, N.Y. as punishment for defying his authority. Sheen quit in disgust in 1969, but in those three years, pedophile priests were undoubtedly shuffled around from one parish to another within the diocese by the future “saint.”

• Rochester Catholic diocese files action against insurers

Speaking of Rochester, the local Catholic diocese filed for bankruptcy back on September 12th due to the rising number of lawsuits filed by victims of pedophile priests in conjunction with New York State’s newly passed Child Victim Act. The diocese is now suing its insurers because they’re rightly balking at paying settlements to victims when the diocese knowingly covered-up for/enabled its abusive priests.

• Buffalo’s Bishop Malone dodges protesters as he returns from meeting with the Pope
• Buffalo bishop says Pope ‘understands the difficulties and distress’ of diocese

Down the Thruway, Buffalo’s Catholic bishop, Richard Malone, still retains his office thirteen months after being outed as a serial abuse-enabler by the investigative journalism television show, “60 Minutes.” Pope Francis tapped the bishop of Brooklyn, Nicholas DiMarzio, to make the perfunctory inquiries, but DiMarzio himself is now being accused of sexual abuse by a former altar boy. Pope Francis promised “concrete action” regarding clerical abuse and cover-up, but it’s still the good ol’ men-who-stalk-boys club.

• Controversial ‘Pachamama thief’ goes on U.S. tour

Austrian, Alexander Tschugguel, is the current darling of conservative Catholics for stealing and attempting to destroy the Pacahamama fertility goddess idols that received great attention at the recent Vatican Amazon Synod, including being blessed by pope Francis. The irony is that conservative-traditional Catholicism is bursting at the seams with icon/idol worship.

• How Kanye West put Joel Osteen’s prosperity gospel back under the spotlight

I’m expecting this will be the last news item I’ll be posting about Kanye West. If you haven’t seen the 21-minute video clip of Kanye’s regrettable appearance at Osteen’s heretical prosperity gospel “church,” you can view it here.

• Pope Francis: Religious fundamentalism is a ‘plague’

Pope Francis certainly views all blood-bought, born-again Gospel Christians who know God’s Word and separate from deadly Roman error as “fundamentalists.” The irony is that in his remarks cited in this article, the pope was probably making reference to his own conservative and traditionalist Catholic members who, unlike him, take their religion’s thick catalog of rules and regulations very seriously.

• Is there Biblical basis for the Assumption of Mary?

Leonardo Di Chirico regularly writes informative articles on Catholicism for Evangelical Focus magazine. The bogus Assumption of Mary doctrine was defined as a dogma of the Roman church by pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950, meaning all Catholics are obliged to believe it under threat of mortal sin.

• Joel Osteen Not Sure Who This ‘Jesus’ Fellow Is That Kanye Keeps Talking About (SATIRE)

Did I say I wasn’t going to write anything more about Kanye? Blame it on the Babylon Bee!