Links: Jennifer Hudson on Aretha Franklin; more Latin Mass; Rozanski on immigration

In the St. Louis Review, Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski looks at the issue of immigration and does exactly what a bishop should do: teach what the church teaches. And, in this instance, the starting point of our teaching is clear: "We should remember that the people we're talking about are not anonymous immigrants, but Christ Himself, who will say to us: 'I was a stranger and you welcomed me' or 'I was a stranger and you gave me no welcome.' Whatever policy we support, we should ask how the policy applies to Christ."

At Politico, Erin Banco looks at the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in rural America, where citizens are historically underserved by hospitals and other medical care. The fear of the Delta variant has led to an increase in the number of people getting vaccinated, but the race is on to see if the vaccinations can outpace the variant before the hospitals get overwhelmed. Rural Wyoming has seen its positivity rate go up 80% in recent weeks and now stands at 13% of the population. That makes the entire state a "high transmission area."

At Religion Dispatches, Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University replies to Ross Douthat's column in The New York Times criticizing Pope Francis for his decision to restore the restrictions on the Tridentine rite in place during the pontificate of John Paul II. The reply is masterful, pointing to the narrowness of Douthat's lens and how that lens is distorted by his conservative outlook. Most important is the link between opposition to liturgical reforms and opposition to other key parts of the Second Vatican Council. If this were just about liturgy, there would be no problem. It isn't, and as Faggioli points out, it never has been.

Relatedly, I have never been much of a fan of Amy Welborn, but her recent complaint against Francis' decision about the Tridentine rite, like so many of the complaints against the pope, shows a magnificent ignorance of one of the central facts of Catholic life throughout the 20th century: the liturgical renewal! Has she ever heard of Solesmes? Starting in abbeys and academic circles, and eventually influencing such otherwise different pontiffs as the reactionary Pius X, the diplomatic Pius XII and the learned, forward-looking Paul VI, the liturgical renewal informed the decisions made at Vatican II and subsequently. All this fretting about wanting an "ancient" liturgy fails to acknowledge what we have actually learned about ancient liturgy in the previous two centuries, still less how it informed the reforms the traditionalists abhor. Once again, Francis is proved right by his critics.