UPDATE: See my follow-up comments published today: “Fact Check: Why Catholics Who Disagree With Justice & Peace White Papers Aren’t “Cafeteria Catholics.”

You may have seen this story which was headlined earlier today on the Drudge Report:

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises.

A major document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should be music to the ears of the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.

The 18-page document, “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. [CNBC]

In a scenario which will surely strike some as deja vu, the liberal jesuit Fr. Tom Reese previewed the contents of the document last week, in much the same way that the liberal Fr. Charles Curran “previewed” Humanae Vitae for the mainstream media before the document was actually released (the pope overruled Fr. Curran’s claims that the Church would endorse contraception — but the media had already made up its mind and few bothered to actually read what the pope had to say).

Here’s Fr. Reese on MSNBC “explaining” the news:

Notice that Fr. Reese does NOT correct the news anchor that this document comes from a vatican congregation — not the pope! Fr. Reese seems perfectly happy to help the mainstream media fundamentally misunderstand the authority of teaching this document enjoys. He claims that the pope has “more in common with the people at occupy wallstreet” than the tea party, even though he has to immediately walk back that claim when it is pointed out to him how violent (and anti-Catholic!) the Occupy Rome demonstrations were (as I blogged about last week). I think it’s no surprise that Fr. Reese spends so much time talking about the 60′s — that’s still his cultural frame of reference.

Rather than get into the nitty-gritty of the 18-page document (which I may do at a later point), let me focus on the most important point: framing. Here’s how Cardinal Turkson, President of the Congregation for Justice and Peace, and Bishop Toso, the secretary, explained how the document should be received and read (underlining mine):

…It is in this spirit of discernment that the Holy See, with the note of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, wishes to make a contribution which might be useful to the deliberations of the G-20 meeting”.

Bishop Toso explained that the aim of the note is “suggest possible paths to follow, in line with the most recent social Magisterium, for the implementation of financial and monetary policies…”

The Church does not wish to enter into the technical issues behind the current economic crisis, but remains within the ambit of her religious and ethical functions…

I have nothing to immediately add to that, because the very authors of the document make clear how it should be evaluated: namely, as a “contribution” (as opposed to a mandate), as a “possible path” (as opposed to a moral proscription), in line with the Magisterium’s social teaching (as opposed to introducing a new teaching), without getting into the technical issues (because the Church is an expert in humanity, not economics) while fully staying within the Church’s religious and ethical functions.

Liberal Catholic routinely (and in this case) try to read the Church’s social teaching as dogmatic while choosing to view the Church’s moral and religious teaching as optional. In fact, the Church herself is always careful to make clear that her moral and religious teaching is dogmatic and binding while her social teaching –and particularly her economic teaching– is exhortative and prudential.

With those extremely important guidelines in mind, we can more fruitfully read the text.

That said, I am absolutely sure the media cycle for the coming days and weeks will totally miss all these key points and distill this document down to misleading headlines such as “Pope Benedict Endorses Central World Bank.” But as I explain above, he didn’t.

Fr. Reese and his liberal Catholic friends would be better served acting as messengers of the Church’s teaching as opposed to creators of it.

UDATE — Samuel Gregg, an economist, adds helpful commentary:

Despite the Catholic Left’s excited hyperventilating that the document released today by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (PCJP) would put the Church “to the left of Nancy Pelosi” on economic issues, more careful reading of “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority” soon indicates that it reflects rather conventional contemporary economic thinking. Unfortunately, given the uselessness of much present-day economics, that’s not likely to make it especially helpful in thinking through some of our present financial challenges.

Doctrinally speaking, there’s nothing new to be found in this text. As PCJP officials will themselves tell you, it’s not within this curial body’s competence to make doctrinal statements that bind Catholic consciences. Moreover, the notion that an increasingly integrated world economy requires some type of authority able to make decisions about what the Church calls “the universal common good” has long been a staple of Catholic social teaching. Such references to a global world authority have always been accompanied by an emphasis on the idea of subsidiarity, and the present document is no exception to that rule. This principle maintains that any higher level of government should assist lower forms of political authority and civil-society associations “only when” (as this PCJP text states) “individual, social or financial actors are intrinsically deficient in capacity, or cannot manage by themselves to do what is required of them.” [Continue reading...]

Fr. Z also adds his editorial gloss on Gregg’s comments to aid comprehending his points.

Here is the text of the announcement (more to come):

“It’s precisely to give new impetus to the mission of the whole Church to lead men out of the desert in which they often find themselves, to the place of life, of friendship with Christ, who gives us life in abundance. I would like to announce in this Eucharistic celebration I have decided to convene a ‘Year of Faith’, which I will explain in an apostolic letter. This ‘Year of Faith’ begins on October 11, 2012, on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Vatican II, and ends on November 24, 2013, for the Solemnity of Christ, the King of the Universe. It will be a moment of grace and commitment to a more complete conversion to God, to strengthen our faith in Him and to proclaim Him with joy to the people of our time.”

Papist hat/tip: Rome Reports

UPDATE — here is Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio “Porta Fidei” officially announcing 2012 as the “Year of Faith”:

The “door of faith” (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace. To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime. It begins with baptism (cf. Rom 6:4), through which we can address God as Father, and it ends with the passage through death to eternal life, fruit of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, whose will it was, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, to draw those who believe in him into his own glory (cf. Jn 17:22). To profess faith in the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is to believe in one God who is Love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8): the Father, who in the fullness of time sent his Son for our salvation; Jesus Christ, who in the mystery of his death and resurrection redeemed the world; the Holy Spirit, who leads the Church across the centuries as we await the Lord’s glorious return. [Continue reading...]

Rep. Cliff Stearns, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has written an official letter to Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, demanding documentation to investigate whether the nation’s largest abortion provider is handling its federal funding properly and to what degree it is properly following federal guidelines on the mandatory reporting of underage sexual abuse, etc.

The whole letter has been leaked to the public.

Here is an excerpt from the opening:

“The Committee has questions about the policies in place and actions undertaken by PPFA [Planned Parenthood Federation of America] and its affiliates relating to its use of federal funding and its compliance with federal restrictions on the funding of abortion.”

The letter goes on to describe eight specific demands that Planned Parenthood must comply with in two weeks. Demands #5, 6 & 6 deal with reporting cases of sex abuse to the proper authorities:

Demand #6 reads: “Please provide a summary of how PPFA detects criminal conduct and the policies and procedures in place to prevent it or report it.”

Demand #7 reads: “Please provide the policies and procedures PPFA and its affiliates have in place to ensure that all Planned Parenthood clinics report all cases of suspected sexual abuse, including statutory rape, to the proper authorities.

Demand #8 reads: “Please provide the policies and procedures PPFA and its affiliates have in place to ensure that suspected sex trafficking is reported to the proper authorites.”

Demands #1-#5 deal with Planned Parenthood releasing (in most cases, for the first time publicly) internal and external audits and financial documentation revealing how they are using federal funding (through the Title X program).

Make no mistake, Planned Parenthood, abortion advocates and their political protectors will do everything in their power to shield Planned Parenthood from this request for documentation and evidence. I have a very simple question for them:

“If Planned Parenthood thinks they deserve our taxpayer money why do they feel they can deny our elected officials the right to ask what they are doing with our taxpayer money?”

As I said, please stay tuned for more updates…

And in the meantime, please thank Congressman Cliff Stearns for helping to uncover Planned Parenthood’s systematic abuse of women and children!

President Obama has ordered the Department of Justice – which is tasked with defending the laws passed by Congress – to STOP defending the Defense of Marriage Act … which was passed by Congress. Here is the statement from the Attorney General:

The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional.   Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases. [Read the full letter here]

The US Bishops have issued a strong statement critical of the decision:

The U.S. bishops’ Office of General Counsel said the Obama administration’s decision to no longer support the Defense of Marriage Act in legal challenges ahead “represents an abdication” of its “constitutional obligation to ensure that laws of the United States are faithfully executed.”

“Marriage has been understood for millennia and across cultures as the union of one man and one woman,” the office said in a statement issued Feb. 23 [CNS]

Here’s my quick take: Obama believes that traditional marriage laws are unconstitutional, and he’ll stop at nothing to undermine them using any tool at his disposal. That’s really all one can conclude from this extraordinary action he’s just taken.

William Duncan writes, “There is something about the marriage issue that provokes an “any means necessary” approach from its proponents (among whom I believe we can count the president, notwithstanding campaign rhetoric to the contrary).”

Dan Foster adds:

“The DOJ (and the president) are attempting to unilaterally amend the Constitution to add a sexual-orientation discrimination clause.”

Over the last decade, most of the courts that have weighed in on the issue have found marriage laws to be consistent with the federal Constitution or the relevant state constitution, but the DOJ does not even mention these decisions.

UPDATE – Nancy Pelosi chimes in with her unhelpful two cents:

Glad to see she is so equally wrong on marriage as she is on life.

For many more updates on this topic, see the NOM blog.

District Attorney Seth Williams announced homicide charges against a West Philadelphia abortion doctor Wednesday morning.

After two patients allegedly died from complications in Dr. Kermit B. Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society at 38th Street and Lancaster Avenue, authorities served the abortion doctor with search warrants for his practice and his home in Mantua last April.

In the clinic, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents found abhorrent conditions, which included jars packed with fetuses, bloodstained floors and unlicensed employees. The investigation into Gosnell has been ongoing since February 2010.

Williams will be giving details on the case and charges against the abortion doctor Wednesday morning.

CBS3 sources say that the murder charges include the deaths of seven babies who were born alive. [source]

On the first vote, Bp. Kicanas led the count with 104, Abp. Dolan – 84, Abp. Chaput – 20.

On the second vote, Abp. Chaput’s supporters went mostly for Dolan: Abp. Dolan 118 – Kicanas 111.

By the third vote, it was all over: Abp. Dolan 128 - Bp. Kicanas 111.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville was also elected as vice president.

This is a very encouraging development and if you want to know why I am so pleased by it, read what I wrote earlier about the Kicanas conundrum. A big thank you to all who joined me in praying for the best outcome. Praise be to God and the Holy Spirit.

UPDATE - here is what Rocco wrote about +Dolan’s surprise appointment:

For the first time in the history of the US bishops, a vice-president standing for the presidency has been denied the top post, losing a stunning election to the archbishop of New York.

… Overturning a half-century of tradition for the bench, the result represents a seismic shift for the leadership of the nation’s largest religious body, and a mandate for a continuance of the outspoken, high-profile leadership shown by Cardinal Francis George over his game-changing term at the conference’s helm.

There will be a great deal of commentary written over the coming days, trying to decide what Archbishop Dolan’s election means. Let me get in front of all the spin: The majority of American bishops believe that Abp. Dolan is the best choice to lead them and represent the Church to the American people over the next three years. It’s that simple.

Or, as Rocco reports one young bishop put it the other day, +Dolan “inspired us as priests, before we became bishops”… and the sentiment won the day.

UPDATE 2 – for once, I agree with Fr. Thomas Reese (the only person Laurie Goodstien of the New York Times could find to interview on this news. Laurie – update your Rolodex!):

The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Seminary at Georgetown University and a liberal Catholic commentator, said, “The two vice presidential finalists were the two most conservative on the ballot. That says something about where this conference is going.”

Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha has been forced to suppress the Intercessors of the Lamb, a formerly-Catholic association of the faithful in his archdiocese. After the group requested recognition as an official Catholic organization, the archbishop undertook a canonical visitation.

Some of the neighbors are glad for the suppression, and considered the group a cult.

Here is the video report by a local TV news station.

Here is the full statement by Archbishop Lucas (in PDF format).

An important corollary to this story is that forty-eight members of the community are acting in obedience to the Archbishop (I believe this number represents the entire community, but I am waiting for confirmation).

These forty-eight former members have, however, been left high-and-dry by the “Intercessors of the Lamb” and are now being cared for directly by the Archdiocese. Since they took a vow of poverty before entering the community, they have nothing to fall back on except our charity.

You can make a donation to help offset the costs of their basic needs through the Archdiocesan website here (which is being updated with new information).

I will update this story as more reliable information becomes available. In the meantime, please pray for the healing of all those involved, and especially for the former members of the community, and for understanding to develop between and the Archbishop.

And again, please contribute to the former members’ immediate materiel need, if you are able.