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This Insights eNewsletter was sent to subscribers on April 23, 2013.

eNewsletter Subject: Down with Functionaries!

When he ordained ten deacons to the priesthood on Sunday, Pope Francis was characteristically direct: Be pastors, not functionaries.

This speaks to all of us. We must all act with a sense of mission, not just fulfill some minimal role. It is precisely this that the Second Vatican Council attempted to instill anew into every level of the Church.

But what resistance this has met ever since! The latest excuse is that the Council was simply too vague to do any good. All I can say (and have, in fact, said in my latest On the Culture essay) is this: Beware the vagueness of Vatican II!

If you've been following the news here in America, you know that various tragedies have brought the question of gun control back to the fore. But unfortunately, some of our bishops have pontificated in near-total ignorance. Phil Lawler explains in two commentaries:...

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