Earlier this week there was a blow-up in the blogosphere due to some fine work by Michael Voris and his staff at Church Militant TV to uncover a Twitter feed of Congregation of St. Basil spokesman Father Timothy Scott, CSB wherein he used the profanity STFU in a note to Raymond Cardinal Burke which was on-line for the world to see. Once discovered, Father Scott took the post down and then once the matter became more public thanks to Mr. Voris, Father Scott disabled his Twitter account and apologised. Michael Voris has provided an update to the story as the removal as spokesman of the Congregation was "based on a partial truth from the Vicar General of the
Basilians." Voris added that "we were misled to believe Fr. Scott had been "fired" for
his tweet, when in fact he had been removed as spokesman last July for
unrelated reasons." Father Scott, CSB still continues in his role at the Canadian Religious Conference.
Conference notes
In an address to the Conference on October 3, 2013, Father Scott indicated that he was "amazed at the "Francis effect" and refers to his belief that the "Holy Spirit (who) clearly blows where she wills" (my emphasis). During the talk Father also indicated that "Social media is radically restructuring the way we communicate." Reflecting on Pope Benedict XVI. Father Scott believes that he "suffers in comparison" to Pope Francis. Father Scott states that he "felt a collective embarrassment" by Pope Benedict XVI's desire to ensure doctrinal orthodoxy by "rein(ing) in canonically the LCWR"(Leadership Conference of Women Religious) the American equivalent for religious sisters to the Canadian Religious Conference. Father Scott states that as far as Pope Francis is concerned, it is his view that law and doctrine are "the least of his concerns."
More Tweets
With special thanks shouted out to a reader who provided this shot of another Tweet by Father Scott from October 14, 2014 at 7:59AM wherein Father refers to Synod14 and that "it feels like a few folks want to put the toothpaste back in the tube, Good luck with that."
So that we can all remember the document issued only the very day before Father provided the above Tweet; let us reproduce it here and let us note that this still remains on the Vatican web site at:
http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/10/13/0751/03037.html
It seems then that yes, it is very hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
It is also very hard to remove Twitter forever, so be careful what you Tweet!
I'll refrain from comment or editorial opinion, for now, but the combox is open, as always.