STEPHEN IPPOLITO writes from Australia:

As a member of TTH’s crack team of foreign correspondents sprinkled strategically throughout the world, I thought I would report to you on what is currently playing out down under with the Catholic churchman whom the world’s press are fond, (I think probably rightly), of describing as “the third-highest ranking official in the Curia” and as “the Pope’s finance minister,” Cardinal George Pell, a native son of these parts.

You wrote a very prescient piece about his legal woes back on 20 July 2017.

[NOTE: This website does not recognize the heretical, modernist Vatican II Church as the Catholic Church. But in the eyes of the world (and many sincere Catholics), it is the Catholic Church, and thus allegations of crimes by its clergy are publicly imputed to the Catholic Church. The media coverage of sex abuse charges, when that coverage is slanted or false, and the prosecution of false allegations, constitute a war against the Catholic Church.]

His Eminence, apart from his Vatican post, is Archbishop of Sydney, Australia’s largest city, and was before that Archbishop of its second city, Melbourne. He has been for several decades now far and away the most widely-recognized Catholic in this country. Although you and I and just about all other readers of TTH would beg to differ, he has long been identified by the press as a leading “conservative” voice in the church world-wide.

His Eminence has been on extended leave of absence from his Vatican post since June 2017 when he  was charged that month with a series of “historic” child sexual abuse crimes dating back to the 70’s and ‘90’s.

In your piece in 2017 you expressed serious doubts as to the credibilty of two of the main witneses against Pell, (the identities of most other witnesses, along with their detailed evidence, being withheld from the public by court order as is usual here in such cases).

You were right to do so. His Eminence’s Committal Hearing completed last month. The magistrate delivered her findings and judgement earlier this month. I’m not American but from what I have read of US practice and procedure our Committal procedure seems to resemble fairly closely the US “Grand Jury” procedure. That is: before someone may be tried for an indictable offense a magistrate, sitting alone, hears evidence in a modified type of trial in order to determine whether there exists a  reasonable possibility that a jury, properly instructed, might find the allegations proven. It is not  the criminal standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” that is the test applied in committals but simply whether there appears to exist a credible or reasonable case for the accused to answer. (more…)

JOHN LENNON’S 1971 song “Imagine” is the New World Order anthem, a song not of peace, but of deadening global tyranny and nihilism. Funny how many people have been seduced by the powerful, hopeful music into thinking it is benign. The music acts as a potent sedative — although few pills or pharmaceuticals could so instantly lull the rational mind as this can. It’s no accident that this utopian, Communistic song, which envisions a world without personality, possessions, nations and religion, has been played at the United Nations and the Summer Olympics. There’s a circle in hell where speakers play this tune over and over, driving everyone into raving lunacy. In hell, there is no imagination.

I have annotated the lyrics:

Imagine there’s no heaven
Imagine you are nothing
It’s easy if you try
It’s easier if you don’t
No hell below us
And no justice too
Above us only sky
Around us only force
Imagine all the people living for today
No past or future, ah-ha-ah-a (more…)

ERIC writes: This photo was taken on a ferry with a lot of adult commuters, and not too many kids. But still.

Israeli forces have killed 112 Palestinians and injured 13,190 since March 30th, including a deaf child who was shot in the head, medics, and journalists. One Israeli soldier was reportedly injured. Read more here.

HEAD to a fall-out shelter when he speaks. Novus Ordo Watch examines "Pope" Francis's latest outrage: We must be clear that merely experiencing same-sex attraction is not sinful — sin is an act of the will, not a feeling. What is sinful is consenting to it, approving of it, acting on it, and claiming that such attraction is normal, legitimate, or healthy. It’s sinful because sexual attraction exists for sexual acts, and the primary purpose of sexuality is procreation, something that is intrinsically frustrated in unnatural acts. Unnatural acts are, in the truest sense of the word, a perversion, meaning a turning away from the proper end (the Latin pervertere literally means “to turn to ill effect”). They are an abuse of the faculties God gave to man so he could produce offspring. As one moral theologian puts it: “The malice of sodomy consists in the perverted affection towards the wrong sex or in the attraction towards the wrong method of sexual gratification” (Rev. Heribert Jone, Moral Theology [Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1962], n. 230.2; italic and bold print given).

MARY BALL MARTINEZ’S fascinating book, The Undermining of the Catholic Church, first published in 1991, describes the internal destruction that began well before Vatican II and then burst into the open with the Council, causing even leading non-Catholic intellectuals and artists — figures such as Robert Graves, Vladimir Askanazy and Iris Murdoch — to object.

Martinez was a Vatican news reporter for many years. An excerpt from the 2007 edition by the Christian Book Club of America:

In Rome the hours before dawn are never really warm, even in summer. It was the vigil of Pentecost and virtually summer (the great movable feasts came late in the year 1971) when some four thousand men and women from many parts of the world knelt through the night on chill flagstones below the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica. In the immense circle of the piazza, only dimly lit by an uncertain moon and a few electric bulbs hidden high among the all-embracing Bernini columns, they would have looked from above, even in such numbers, like small huddled shadows.

Ahead, as if it were the object of their prayers, the great facade, secure atop its thirty-eight steps, immutable now for four hundred years, its magnificent stones successors to lesser stones, said to cover the bones of the Galilean fisherman, Simon called Peter. Here was the core of Christendom, the Rock and the tangible sign of Christian permanence. For the kneeling pilgrims the darkness itself added dimension and wonder to the wall the Basilica made, a wall to hold back not just the dawn that would soon come out of the East, but a wall to hold back all the false doctrines on earth. Hardly a handful among the crowd would have known that already behind the brave facade a hollowing-out process, an eating away of strength and substance, had been going on for more than half a century, that the Catholic Church had been undermined. [10]

All of them knew that something was wrong; otherwise they would not have joined the pilgrimage. In France, in Germany, England, Argentina, the United States, Australia, each in his own parish, had been stricken by sudden change, by orders to worship in a strange new way. Nearly half of the pilgrims were French, having arrived on chartered trains from Paris and all had come to plead with the Holy Father to give them back the Mass, the Sacraments and a Catechism for their children.

Had any of them looked beyond the pillars and high over to the right, they could have made out the shuttered windows of the papal apartments. Was the Pope asleep? Could he sleep, knowing they were there? From where he lay, the murmured Aves and Paters of the fifteen decades of the rosary cannot have sounded much louder than the play of water on the ancient fountain in the piazza. (more…)

  FROM Mike King's Anti-New York Times: Who bloody cares about those degenerate useless eaters of the modern British Monarchy and their "royal weddings?" Evidently, the owners of the Piranha Press (cough cough) and the hordes of simpletons enthralled by their wholly owned EIB (Electronic Idiot Box) do -- and there's a historical reason for it. You see, the British Royal Mafia and various parliamentarians -- initially for the glory of the ever-expanding Empire and then for the purpose of survival -- got in bed with and were then forced to stay in bed with the International Jewish bankers a long time ago. That is why "The House of Windsor" is still around, whereas the Habsburgs (Spain,Austria),  Hohenzollern  (Prussia/Germany)  Romanovs  (Russia)  and Bourbons(France, Italy) are not. [...] What the short-sighted British Monarchy and ultra-nationalist statesmen never realized, is that in allowing the money lenders to grow so rich by financing the worldwide empire and its associated wars, the British eventually went broke, lost their official "hit man" position to the United States, lost their empire and power to the banker-funded subversive Marxists and Fabians, and even lost control of their home island to the Globalists as well! But for centuries of faithful services rendered to Zion, the British royals did at least get to keep their lives, their inherited fortunes, their unwarranted privileges and their undeserved "rock star" status -- provided, of course, that they continue to obey and not get any ideas about truly serving the interests of the…

  THE BLESSED VIRGIN ON PENTECOST MORNING Maid and Mother, pure and kind, ’Tis the Whitsun morning; May hath wearied sun and wind For the world’s adorning,— Earth is blossomed like a bride For the blessed Whitsuntide. Thrice the mighty Spirit wrought For thy soul’s completing: First, thy stainless self He brought To the world’s entreating; Next, to work thy “Fiat” came; Last, He crowns thy brow with flame. ’Tis Elijah’s olden rite, Slow in sign preparing: First, God built thee, altar bright,— Christ, the Victim, bearing; Last, from Heaven, at thy desire Flashed the Lord’s consuming fire. ---- Edward F. Garesche, S.J

A READER writes:

Your reader, Kyle, mentioned the legal battle between Katy Perry and a few nuns in Los Angeles. I think he is idealizing these nuns. I’ve done a tiny bit of searching into this story and came across the nuns’ website Stand with the Sisters and a link to a documentary on the story (which I’ve not spent my time watching).

The documentary opens with these words:

“Would you be surprised to find out that this is actually a case about women’s rights? For millenia religious women have persevered silently under the patriarchy of the Catholic Church. Their status has always remained secondary, behind the male clergy. Courageously, two women have taken a stand against this injustice.” (more…)

THIS IS A PUBLIC letter to David Leonhardt, columnist for The New York Times:

Dear Mr. Leonhardt,

I am writing in response to your fascinating opinion piece, “I’m not Quoting Enough Women.”

I understand that you are interested in quoting more women in your articles. Too many male experts, you believe, are asked for their input and you have decided to discriminate on the basis of sex alone to include a greater number of women in your reports. (more…)

ALAN writes:

Western Europeans are now fleeing into Hungary to escape from the tyranny of diversity-and-multiculturalism imposed upon them by their governments.  Sixty years ago it was the other way around:  Families were fleeing out of Hungary to escape from the tyranny of Communism.  I came to know one such family.  They would find rich irony in that historic reversal.

One day in or about 1961, a new boy appeared in my class at St. Anthony of Padua parochial school in south St. Louis.  He and I were the same age but he was a little bigger than me and he spoke two languages, while I was still learning to deal with one.

I can’t recall precisely how we became friends.  Perhaps he asked me for advice or perhaps our teacher encouraged us to become acquainted because she knew I was a good pupil who wouldn’t steer him wrong and because his family lived only a block away from mine.

My new friend’s name was Leslie. Some fellow students taunted him because when speaking to his younger brother, he spoke in his first language: Hungarian. It sounded strange, of course, and some boys believed (wrongly) that they were talking about them when in fact they were talking only about family or personal matters.

Whatever they talked about did not bother me.  I saw no point in taunting them.  I was a loner of sorts, quiet, obedient, an only child, and somewhat naïve. Leslie and his younger brother treated me right, so I did the same in return.  Thus we became friends.  On some days we walked home from school together.  His mother had an appointment at some doctor’s office whose whereabouts were a complete mystery to her.  So my mother offered to drive her there. They became friends.

Leslie’s parents and their four children were one of tens of thousands of families who fled from Hungary in 1956 because they preferred to go on living rather than be tyrannized or murdered by the Communist goons who reasserted their power in response to the short-lived Hungarian Revolution.  (more…)

FROM THE ONION: On the heels of this week’s decision lifting a federal ban on sports betting, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 7-2 ruling Wednesday that legalizes all worldly vices, with the justices decreeing that immoral behaviors such as gambling, drug use, prostitution, and incest are “all good now.” “It is the opinion of this court that the right to participate in various forms of debauchery, whether heroin injection, illicit sex, or cannibalism, should not be impeded by any law,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority, adding that if something is considered unethical or depraved, but you feel like doing it anyway, the court “doesn’t give a s***t” and you should just do whatever you want. “The government has no legitimate constitutional basis upon which to police any wicked or immoral actions that serve to satisfy an individual’s basest desires or appetites. As far as we’re concerned, everyone can just have at it.” At press time, reports confirmed the court adjourned for a brief recess during which several of the justices personally tested the waters with necrophilia.

THE MET GALA at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is an annual fashion extravaganza  on the first Monday of May — an expensive celebration of ugliness, arrogance, raw flesh and ego by celebrities who parade on a red carpet before banks of photographers.

Stars at the event have for a long time flaunted blasphemy with crosses and religious images on their bodies, but this year’s event on May 7th reached new heights of indecency, sacrilege and Satanism with a theme that coincided with the museum’s new exhibit, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.”

The fleshy stars were dressed in sacred vestments and objects donated by the Vatican. Yup, that’s right. Archbishop “Timothy Dolan was in attendance to further give a “Catholic” seal of approval. The actual exhibit was sponsored by Jewish billionaire Stephen A. Schwarzman, who gave $5 million to stage “Heavenly Bodies.”

“Hellish Bodies” was more like it at the star-studded ball.

The singer Lana del Rey did a parody of Our Lady of Sorrows complete with an image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary with the seven swords on her bodice.

“Victoria’s Secret model Stella Maxwell [wore] a tight strapless column gown stamped with six large icons of Our Lady; actress Sarah Jessica Parker ‘wore” a Neapolitan nativity scene on her head; [and] actress Zendaya Coleman dressed up as a back-and-cleavage-showing Saint Joan of Arc,” writes Luiz Sérgio Solimeo at The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.

“Actress Anne Hathaway was dressed in a red cardinal’s outfit, with a bare back and equally indecent, cleavage-displaying front. Rapper Nicki Minaj sported a cardinal-type flowing red cloak, and her impure top was not outdone by the front of her dress which was slit almost to her waist, revealing her bare legs when she walked. To media Minaj declared: ‘I’m dressed as the devil.’ Another Victoria’s Secret model, Taylor Hill, wore a red-trimmed cleavage-showing black dress, a pectoral cross, and what looked like a cardinal’s red sash and pellegrina.” (more…)

Chemi Shalev reports in Ha’aretz (read more at If Americans Knew):

The stark contrast that played out on split screens throughout the world Monday, between the Israeli celebration in Jerusalem and the Palestinian casualties in Gaza, was worthy of Charles Dickens’ immortal opening to “A Tale of Two Cities:” “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” (more…)

  FROM an outstanding Mother's Day piece by Stella Morabito at The Federalist: Motherhood is the first and last line of defense against totalitarianism. If you think this statement sounds over the top, you ought to ponder why the family has always been the ultimate target of tyrannical systems of government such as communism. Advocates of cultural Marxism tend to view families as akin to subversive cells that get in the way of centralized state power. The driving force in each of those “cells” is a devoted flesh-and-blood mother who defends, nurtures, strengthens, and teaches her children well. She magnifies this power by teaming up with the child’s father in that effort. Such a family represents, at the most elemental level, the “little platoon” philosopher Edmund Burke referred to: To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind. The interest of that portion of social arrangement is a trust in the hands of all those who compose it; and as none but bad men would justify it in abuse, none but traitors would barter it away for their own personal advantage. As healthy, cohesive families go forth into the world as little platoons, they are a force for goodwill and real justice in…

FROM TODAY'S Anti-New York Times: Five separate stories, with one common theme, spread like hot feces all throughout a single Sunday issue of Sulzberger's Slimes. Here's a brief summary of the essence of each article: Women good -- men bad Women good -- men bad Women good -- men bad Women good -- men bad Women good -- men bad  The angle here is obvious. The Marxist-inspired "women's movement" ™ which began with the suffrage movement of the late 19th century eventually metastasized into the feminist revolution of the 1960's and beyond. Today, many loony and thoroughly miserable ladies, having abandoned motherhood for the pursuit of "equality" in government and the professions, now hold some of the highest corporate and government positions in major nations throughout the West, and constitute a majority of the university student population. Yes indeed -- you've come a long way, baby. How's it workin' out for ya? Given this amazing "progress," one would think that the "women's movement" ™ would settle down and savor the "equality" it has won. Instead, the loony ladies are becoming even more aggressive in their holy war to tear down "the patriarchy." The goal now is not merely "equality," but rather, a perceived superiority over de-balled and dispossessed men. Note our use of the adjective, "perceived" in front of the word "superiority." That's because, at the very tippy-top of the New World Order pyramid, it has always been and will always be a men-only club calling the shots. Ever…

MELANIE NOTKIN has some wise reflections on the rise of the childless mother --- the woman who wants children but fails to have them because she never finds the right man. But Notkin fails to see the solution -- a reversal of the Sexual Revolution and the feminist quest for autonomy.

  HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! Mothers who find their lives exhausting may enjoy this diary of a 19th-century Indiana farm wife. The account may make their lives seem easy by comparison. Sarah Young Bovard brought many children into the world (12 --- though not all survived childhood) and gave herself entirely to the vocation of motherhood. She was the sustaining heart of her home before refrigerators and dishwashers helped with the work.