The Catholic Monitor

The Epoch Times appears to be saying the United States is now officially a banana republic: What we’ve learned from Roberts is that he’s susceptible to pressure and hates conflict. In one of the most disgraceful episodes in the court’s history, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), losing his cool over abortion “rights” on the steps of the Supreme Court, directly threatened Roberts’s colleagues Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price,” he said last March. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.” Roberts’s milquetoast reaction? “Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.” Still, Schumer’s message ca...

The scholar Dr. Ed Mazza in a guest post on the Ann Barnhardt website wrote the "pope might be above canon law (I’ve heard it both ways)—but he is certainly not above natural law": In the case of Pope Benedict, the stakes couldn’t be higher. If his notion of the munus Petrinum was erroneous, then his resignation was invalid. Canon 188 of the New Code of Canon Law (1983) states explicitly that “a resignation made out of…substantial error” is invalid. This would mean Benedict is still the Head of the Catholic Church and that Jorge Bergoglio is “Antipope Francis.” Furthermore, it must be noted that for years-on-end critics of those who hold that Benedict is pope have accused them (among other things) of “not being trained canon lawyers.” Others have argued that Canon 188 does not matter anyway because the Pope as Supreme Legislator is “above canon law.” Still other prominent critics argue that because all the cardinals and 99% of the bishops of the Church have “peace...