Month: April 2019

Nothing to See Here

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

Benedict wants to blame the 1960s for the sex abuse problem. He doesn’t address how this explains the sex abuse which began decades earlier and was enabled by the widespread corruption and perversion already entrenched in the episcopate before the 60s. The man who abandoned his post now praises the work of Francis and wants the faithful to look the other way.

One friend on Facebook tried to explain Benedict’s actions as a criticism of Francis, although Benedict closes the essay with this gem:

At the end of my reflections I would like to thank Pope Francis for everything he does to show us, again and again, the light of God, which has not disappeared, even today. Thank you, Holy Father

Another friend observed that Benedict was subtly contradicting the Francis approach to things.

However, I’m of the mind that Ratzinger was a big part of the problem. He was a periti at the council, he was a major influence on the new theology, he was the right hand man to JP2 for all those years, who presided over the greatest collapse in the Church since the Arian crisis, and when it was his own time to make the tough decisions as Pope, he quit. (All this having been said, I don’t deny the good he did with SP and the lifting of the unjust excommunications).

If he’s having a crisis of conscience, it doesn’t indicate that he truly understands the nature of the problem (which is not pedophilia). If … Read the rest

Church, Government or Bank?

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

Sorry for the poor quality picture.

This photo from c. 1880 hangs in the refectory at the Church of the Assumption in Nashville. The photographer was looking south at Capitol Hill, with the church in the foreground. If you’ve ever traveled through Europe or Latin America, you know that in most cities the church was placed in the center and often at the highest point in the city.

Isn’t it interesting that in the United States it is either a government building or a government-backed bank that took the church’s place in town?… Read the rest

The Eternal Mediocrity of Mexico

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

By Ricardo Valenzuela

At the beginning of the 80s, I was taking training with the Bank of America in its different offices in California, Chicago, New York. In one of my stays in Los Angeles, I was invited to a talk that would offer the Nobel laureate, Milton Friedman, one of the men I have admired the most and, above all, the guide which shaped my ideas of economic freedom. The event took place in one of the elegant lounges of the bank that was crowded with people from early on. A crowd that included the famous actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who years later would become governor of California. But my big surprise was the arrival of Ronald Reagan who a year later would be president of the United States.

The theme of the conference was the critical situation that world banking system was going through, listing motives from the misbehavior of the world economy, the novel currency flotation system, the absence of political leaders with real ideas of what economic development is, etc. At a certain point in his talk, this wise character made the venue vibrate when he said: “This situation is so serious that the main banks of the world have lent more of their capital and reserves to countries that can be considered bankrupt.” Before a gloomy murmur of the assistants, Milton Friedman makes a long pause that is taken advantage of by someone who, breaking the protocol, almost screaming question. “Countries in bankruptcy How, where?” The … Read the rest