John W. Farrell Profile Banner
John W. Farrell Profile
John W. Farrell

@JohnWFarrell

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Author @BasicBooks @Prometheusbks , Contributor @commonwealmag @WSJ @aeonmag @NautilusMag @USCatholic My latest book now available in audio format.

Boston
Joined February 2009
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 months
Excited to see my poem, 'Origins', in the upcoming August issue of @USCatholic !
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
Aging white guys in robes with thuribles meandering down the streets in NYC. That's the ticket to getting young people back into the pews. No, really.
@maryshovlain
Mary Shovlain
1 year
Eucharistic procession organized by the @NapaInstitute this evening in the heart of #NYC led by Bishop Edmund Whalen of @NY_Arch . #eucharisticrevival
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
Folks, the audio book of Clock and the Camshaft is now available for listeners, and narrated by someone with a much nicer voice than the author! 🙂
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@DavidAFrench And then what?
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
Dear New York Times, were you drunk when you published this?
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
11 months
Good-bye to one of the biggest creeps in the U.S. episcopate. Shame on all the Catholics who support him.
@ctrlamb
Christopher Lamb
11 months
Pope Francis has removed Bishop Joseph Strickland from the leadership of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas. The move comes after an investigation which is understood to have found problems with his governance of the diocese including a breakdown in relations with priests & local
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
2 years
Quote of the Day
@BrunoAmato_1
Bruno Amato
2 years
Dear Republican Voters, if you or a family has diabetes, please take note that EVERY Republican voted NO on a $35 cap on insulin because they care more about Big Pharma bankrolling their campaigns than your family's health. Next up on their chopping block is your Social Security.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@rmathematicus @PicturesFoIder @orzelc Damsels tripping over their feet whenever they need to flee some attacker.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
I think this should be read at least once every month. Especially now. The Anger of the White Male Lie by @IjeomaOluo
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
Excellent essay on the 'Noble Cause' revisionism. @ClintSmithIII on why Confederate lies live on:
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@spiderfoods Do you ever actually leave your own house?
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
This is the face of the Prelature of Opus Dei in the U.S. If Barr goes down, the McCloskey scandal will pale in comparison.
@TheBarrCoverUp
#BarrCoverUp #DisBarBarr
5 years
Bill Barr urged to ‘retain a criminal defense attorney’ after Lev Parnas bombshells
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
2 years
Maybe the Vatican can get rid of this clown now, too....
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
"Barron is not really a culture warrior, but he seems to have gravitated to that camp. Instead of coming up with creative ways to evangelize our secular culture, he aligns himself with the likes of Jordan Peterson." via @NCRonline @MichaelSWinters
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
No. It’s based on the realization that it’s not traditional at all.
@dlongenecker1
Fr. Dwight Longenecker
1 year
Is opposition to traditional Catholic liturgy rooted in a mistrust of the Holy Spirit?
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
Somebody framed this. I want one, too.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
2 years
And a lot of physicists still think it is, which is why this video is so important.
@skdh
Sabine Hossenfelder
2 years
Why did some physicists like von Neumann and Wigner think that consciousness is necessary to make sense of quantum mechanics, and can consciousness influence the outcome of a quantum measurement?
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
So many marvelous points from @kayaoakes 's new book. This is one of my favorites: 'Jesus, who drew energy from crowds and surrounded himself with a scrap heap of human beings, also needed, desperately and often, to be alone."
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@NancyAFrench @DavidAFrench @MittRomney @AnnRomney They're not even pretending to hide their desire for violence.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
Excellent article. Pope John Paul II was a horrible judge of character, and he appointed some utter monsters to the episcopate during his overly long pontificate. We're still seeing the consequences of this here.
@mboorstein
Michelle Boorstein
1 year
The U.S. Catholic church represents just 5 percent of worldwide church. And Pope Francis has named more than 70 percent of the cardinals who will pick his successor. @GibsonWrites says US conservatives who oppose Francis are on the losing side of history
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@HenryKarlsonIII @ByronYork @politico This is what Byron York thinks is worth his time?
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@PhysicistTx @MitchellHODL But it does nicely remind people that his faith is fundamentally based on fear.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
Our medieval technological inheritance. Thony Christie's review of my book! via @rmathematicus
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
11 months
Perspective: on a small planet orbiting an average star in an average galaxy in a universe over 13 billion years old, a small group of humans are freaked out by the possibility that female members of the species... could one day become Catholic priests.
@NCRonline
NCR
11 months
BREAKING: The Vatican summit on the future of the church concluded on Oct. 28 by postponing action on ordaining women as deacons and failing to acknowledge deep tensions over how to care for LGBTQ Catholics. @joshjmcelwee and @cwwhiteNCR report.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
A Timely ‘Bible’ For Women via @forbes @FQXi
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
2 years
@MThereseReyes @cnalive They appointed several new members, according to the article. The academy's interest in life issues is much broader than abortion. Good for them.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
11 months
Quibble: I don’t know why this fanatic is called a ‘fireband’. He’s a coward. He never spoke outside the safe spaces where his lunatic followers kept him protected.
@NCRonline
NCR
11 months
NEWS: The Vatican announced Nov. 11 that Pope Francis had effectively fired Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland, a firebrand prelate who called synodality "garbage" and endorsed a video that attacked Francis as a "diabolically disoriented clown.”
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
10 months
Actually it's about Strickland being batshit crazy, and Burke a closet-queen hypocrite.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
And Hahn is Opus Dei. What a surprise…
@ctrlamb
Christopher Lamb
1 year
What Scott Hahn’s public support for Bishop Strickland signifies @Where_Peter_is
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
Conservative Catholics on Twitter.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
10 months
"The injustice of an independently wealthy cardinal living at the expense of the People of God while touring the traditionalist circuit sowing suspicion and doubt about the successor of St. Peter should be obvious to anyone who doesn’t live in a world of their own confection."
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
2 years
Quote of the Day
@skdh
Sabine Hossenfelder
2 years
Nuclear fuel rods aren't like coal bricks. They don't burn and are gone, they just become gradually less efficient. You can totally keep on using the ones you have and produce power with them. It's not true that we can't turn nuclear power back on.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
A supernumerary in the cult of Opus Dei, who's using his position as Attorney General of the United States to cover for Trump 24/7, wants to speak out against 'the forces of secularism'. Real life. Better than any parody.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
Are they writing for six-year-olds?
@NapaInstitute
Napa Institute
1 year
The Divine Creator does not make mistakes. #catholic #christian #catholicism #gender
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
600 years ago?? What a howler, @BostonGlobe
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
A Catholic priest no less....
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
This wins the Internet today.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
Thread of the Day
@BadBradRSR
Official Account of (Activist) "Bad" Brad Berkwitt
1 year
Hey MAGA who hates African Americans & think women should be told what to do with their bodies… I’m right here standing in front of my father’s headshots fighting against all forms of racism & discrimination… You come at POC, women & the LGBTQ community, you come at me too!
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
2 years
Nice to see my first piece for @USCatholic in print!
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@Prof_RBW It all went wrong when we ‘abandoned’ Aristotle and Aquinas….
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
11 months
Read the whole thing.
@mfjlewis
Mike Lewis
11 months
Statement of Fr Timothy Kelly, Pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Church of the Diocese of Tyler, on the removal of Bishop Strickland: “I think it's important to say that many decent good people have been hurt under his administration. Seven years ago, something dark descended upon
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
Um, no. How about refamiliarizing ourselves instead with the craftsmanship and hard work of the nameless masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, stone cutters and laborers who spent most of their lives at work on them. And took pride in what they did with their hands.
@benshapiro
Ben Shapiro
5 years
If we wish to uphold the beauty and profundity of the Notre Dame cathedral, that means re-familiarizing ourselves with the philosophy and religious principles that built it.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
9 months
Remember when pundits said Pope Francis was 'mistaken' not to respond to this crackpot when he first erupted?
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
Probably the most realistic rendition of what Augustine actually looked like.
@gloria_purvis
Gloria Purvis
4 years
St. Augustine, pray for us! #StAugustine by John Nava. Corpus Christi Church in Toledo, Ohio.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
9 months
@askamycollins Oh, boy. The editor/agent gaffes I could share with you...
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
Everywhere...?
@skdh
Sabine Hossenfelder
3 years
Where did the Big Bang happen? If the universe is expanding, it seems that it must have come out of somewhere, no? But how can that be if the universe doesn't have a center? At the end of this video, you can outsmart your friends with the answer 😉
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
2 years
This is wonderful. (If only creative writing also followed the Principle of Least Action.)
@skdh
Sabine Hossenfelder
2 years
Today's video is about my most favorite physics concepts of all, the principle of least action
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
11 months
Quote of the Day
@rightscholar
D.W. Lafferty
11 months
I don't buy this. I don't think Francis thinks in terms of political strategy. Bishop Strickland is simply the type of bishop who worries Francis. Strickland is rigid, addicted to attention, has faulty pastoral instincts, foments division, and fosters a cult of personality.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@skdh Especially when they can’t even agree on what they mean by the term.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
10 months
Nothing about right-wing Christianity surprises me anymore.
@tonyannett
Tony Annett
10 months
I’m stunned by some of these comments. Some people don’t seem to realize that Columbus was an enslaver of indigenous people in the Caribbean. And others are actually making excuses for it. Once again, there is a deep sickness within right-wing Christianity.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
9 months
Exactly. Michael Voris is the prime example of this.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
"But what she did next was what you’d want any good researcher to do: she went through her lab’s records to check the genetic sequences from all of the viruses in her lab. The results? None of them matched SARS-CoV-2." @StartsWithABang via @forbes
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
10 months
Thank you.
@spinangora
Mary Hammond
10 months
Did we all forget Cdl. Burke was the one claiming Covid vaccines were being used to implant microchips in us all? He should have been de-homed and de-salaried for that alone. How many deaths did he contribute to with that idea?
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@maryshovlain @NapaInstitute @NY_Arch Real life. Better than any parody.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
“There are people who live trapped in a theology manual, unable to get into the issues and move theology forward,” the pope said. “Stagnant theology reminds me that stagnant water is the first to corrupt, and stagnant theology creates corruption.” @MassimoFaggioli
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
Well, folks: here in one screen snap is all the batshit insanity of the American Catholic Right....
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@TheresaMac1960 @CBSNews I thought it was Michigan Republicans at first.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
Go home. You're drunk. (again)
@dlongenecker1
Fr. Dwight Longenecker
5 years
The error of the modernists at the Amazonian synod is they have fallen for the myth of the noble savage. Infected with false optimism of universalism & naive sentimentalism, they imagine we in the developed world are the true savages, and the Amazonians are innocent children.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
@JamesMartinSJ This guy's doing a great job of validating Christopher Hitchens' view of religion.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
@dankennedy_nu Trump would insist on something ridiculous in return. He won't do a thing that isn't transactional.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
Bless the nurses.
@funder
Scott Dworkin
4 years
Two nurses stage a counter protest 💙
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
@MassimoFaggioli I'd call it cancer-- and it's on the Right. With special thanks to the millionaires funding attacks on the pope.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
Truly one of the greatest scenes of all time.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
Very excited to announce (at last!) my film A Fine Pavement is now live at Amazon. Link below! 1/2 Please share with friends and relatives!
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
This is brilliant.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
2 years
This wins the Internet today.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
2 years
@leahyland @SmackHenry I wish the text were more legible. But yeah.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@TheresaMac1960 It amazes me in this day and age that any Catholic thinks there is one or even two main reasons why people are no longer attending Mass. This has been percolating for decades, if not centuries.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
What a grift....
@NapaInstitute
Napa Institute
1 year
It was a joy welcoming Vice President @mikepence to the Napa Institute Summer Conference to speak about how to be witnesses to the faith in our modern world. Let Christ be our light! #catholic #christian
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
@bobsmietana @RNS She lost me here: 'But the revolution [Biden] heads is being hijacked by what columnist Andrew Sullivan calls “mobs of wokesters” who demand the rest of us join their radical movement or risk being “cancelled” or re-educated.' Seriously?
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
Barr is probably the best example of how the cult of Opus Dei wittingly (and unwittingly) involves itself in right-wing politics.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
You have only to read Frederic Martel's book to realize what a fraud Sarah is. But he's certainly bamboozled Ignatius Press and the American Trad community....
@Sachinettiyil
Sachin Jose
5 years
"To say that human sexuality no longer depends on the identity of a man or a woman but rather on sexual orientations, such as homosexuality, is nightmarish totalitarianism." - Cardinal Robert Sarah
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
Quote of the Day
@RBrattenWeiss
R Bratten Weiss
1 year
@LivingGodsTruth If fire and brimstone didn't come down on the U.S. when the U.S. kidnapped, enslaved, raped, and murdered millions of Black people, fire and brimstone definitely will not be raining down just because some LGBTQ people are happy and not closeted.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
Dear New York Times, Were you drunk when you hired her? Yours sincerely, William Safire
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
Always nice to find yourself in the bookstore....!
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
He must be the stupidest Catholic priest in the U.S., which is saying a lot given the competition from bishops like Strickland.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
Some readers took issue with my description of Opus Dei as a cult. I based my statement not only on my own personal experience with the organization, but on that of friends who were once members. Yes. It's a cult.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
My latest for Commonweal.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
@BishopStika Simple rule: when the CM freaks show up--ignore. It'll take about a week, but after that they move like a herd of Walking Dead onto something else.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
11 months
And I have no doubt Team Busch & Napa will pay for his upkeep and platform going forward. He and Vigaño can form a duet of ideological insanity.
@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
11 months
Quibble: I don’t know why this fanatic is called a ‘fireband’. He’s a coward. He never spoke outside the safe spaces where his lunatic followers kept him protected.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
@kayaoakes And now, sadly, the last ones to be consulted by the Church.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
God, what a grift.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
10 months
This cries out to be a novel by Ian McEwan or Martin Amis....
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
9 months
Quote of the Day. (re: Humanae Vitae)
@ServusDeiR21
Essence-tial Catholic✝️🇻🇦♥️🕊️
9 months
@ThomasPolega HV is a sunk cost fallacy. The Church is afraid of saying "we need to change our previous teaching" out of fear of losing authority. The irony is that, by obstinately being unwilling to change their teaching, the Church is losing its authority. Doubling down hasn't worked.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@Catholicizm1 And do what...? Start an American Church? Please do.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
2 years
'That Secret Service members were willing to purge texts that they knew by law they had to preserve suggests that they calculated it would be better to face the fallout for deleting the texts than the fallout from whatever was in those texts.' 7.19.2022
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
1 year
@TheresaMac1960 Trads basically dominate US Catholic media. 🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
Amen, sister.
@chrismazina
Chris
4 years
Sister Quincy Howard of the Dominican order of nuns in Washington protests with a sign reading "This is Evil #BLM " as President Donald Trump's motorcade passes on the way to the nearby Saint John Paul II National Shrine.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
The Austerity Of Many Worlds via @forbes @SciForbes @FQXi
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
2 years
@BrianFragaNCR @cwwhiteNCR How can you feel welcome in any institution whose fundamental teaching insists that there is something wrong with you?
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
5 years
Catholic anti-semitism such as this has never gone away. Not after the Holocaust, not after Vatican II, not after a stream of popes visiting Israel. Until Trump though, it was hiding away in Latin Mass parishes and its own social media swamps.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
4 years
@KristanHawkins Oh yeah. Totally antifa.
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@JohnWFarrell
John W. Farrell
3 years
@ThomasJTobin1 Certainly no one would ever confuse you with a prophet.
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