[Updated with new video and additional commentary]

Wikileaks information has been disclosed by Rome Reports that the U.S. intelligence services were completely caught off guard and surprised at the election of then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.



U.S. intelligence was expecting a Latin American as the next pope, and predicted that then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger would have lost in the first round voting.

The rest from Father Zuhlsdorf:

Before the election the staff of the US embassy to the Holy See sent speculations to Washington about the one to be elected.

“The first factor will be age, the cardinals will seek someone who is neither too young nor too old, because they don’t want to have another funeral and conclave quickly” but “they also want to avoid having a long pontificate like that of John Paul II.”  Furthermore, “it will be a person in reasonably good health”.  Another element will be “linguistic ability” and he will have to know Italian.

Father Tim Finigan of The Hermeneutic of Continuity posted rare video footage of Padre Pio, ie, Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, on his blog.

I've reposted it here for my faithful readers!



For the Padre Pio Facebook fan page click here.

(Hat Tip: Tim Finigan of The Hermeneutic of Continuity)

John L. Allen Jr., otherwise referred to in most circles as John Allen, is the prolific writer for the dissident Catholic newspaper National Catholic Reporter has come out defending L'Osservatore Romano in the recent Pope Condom Comments controversy.

John Allen laid the blame clearly on orthodox/conservative Catholic bloggers for "jealousy, politics, and dated expectations of how the Vatican paper ought to behave." referring to critics of L'Osservatore Romano and its editor Gian Maria Vian, of which I am one of those critics.

Mr. Allen, by "dated expectations of how the Vatican paper ought to behave", do you mean as in defending Church teaching and not embarrassing the pope at all costs?

Are you kidding me?

No, really, are you kidding me Mr. John "anyone who practices their Catholic faith is equivalent to the Taliban" Allen?

Mr. Allen's credibility has always been held in high esteem by both sides of the Catholic aisle, ie, orthodox and dissident Catholics.  After reading his book on Opus Dei, I came away impressed by his even handedness.

But with the recent AP article referencing John Allen's "Taliban Catholicism" comment in which Mr. Allen paints all practicing Catholics as the Taliban and now his defense of L'Osservatore Romano's major league gaffe in which mass swaths of humanity now think that Catholic teaching on contraception has changed, he has the appalling gall to smear orthodox/conservative Catholic bloggers?

Maybe it's time to question John Allen's journalistic credentials as a balanced journalist with this latest travail in journalistic adventurism.

This just befuddles the mind.

(Cross-posted at The American Catholic)

The changes that I have made over the years to Custos Fidei have mostly come without warning, but at least they were gradual changes, nothing sudden.  Changing the header and tweaking sidebars here and there are some of the changes that I have implemented.

Since I have upgraded the The American Catholic website and created two new websites, Gulf Coast Catholic and The Pulpit, I have decided to upgrade Custos Fidei as well.  I won't get a URL, but I will mess around with the programming and see what I can do to make it more user friendly.

If any of my loyal readers have any idea, suggestion, and or requests, now is the time to speak your peace.

Just as a friendly reminder since we are on the topic of websites, if you miss your twice daily Catholic news updates here at Custos Fidei, I haven't stopped them, I've just created a brand new website just for them at The Pulpit.

In Jesus, Mary, & Joseph,

Tito

Archbishop Anuar Battisti, of whom's archdiocese this video is emanating from, says "No one needs to be scandalized by this...".



The Reform of the Reform can't work its way quick enough down in this spiritually impoverished archdiocese.

(Hat Tip: Fratres in Unum via Rorate Caeli)

The Pulpit has just published their first post.

If you enjoyed reading the twice daily news updates on Custos Fidei, I strongly suggest you go visit The Pulpit now!

As I promised to my loyal readers I am unveiling the name of a new website that combines the best of RealClearPolitics and the Drudge Report with a Catholic focus of course!

The name of this new website is The Pulpit.

I was going to wait to make it go online after Thanksgiving, I've decided that as soon as I'm done with a few more tweaks it'll go online by the end of this week.

I dare my readers to search for it online and see if they can locate the URL and post it in the comments section.

The first reader who does this gets bragging rights to being the First Reader of The Pulpit (sorry, I'm poor!).

Good luck and God bless!

In Jesus, Mary, & Joseph,

Tito

A blogsite dedicated to all things Catholic in Houston has gone live this week!  A group of writers got together over a year ago and have been working and planning together to get this site up and running.  I am their Chief Editor and we will be writing on activities, events, apostolates, and other things Catholic that are occurring in the great Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

We hope you all take a look at it give us some feedback.  The name of this endeavor is Gulf Coast Catholic.

We will be serving the laity and clergy of the Gulf Coast region in establishing a strong, vibrant, and orthodox fellowship of disciples of Christ!

For the Gulf Coast Catholic link click here.