On Synods Then and Now...
Hagiographers of the current pontificate may find my comments here unfair, or worse. If so, their flackery does the Holy Father no service. The virtues of mutual fidelity and mutual obedience in a marriage—qualities I’m quite familiar with after 52 years with a wedding ring—never exclude candor, and when necessary, some very sobering criticism...
Our Lord treasures your faithfulness and is eager to reward it. Think of it this way...
Once upon a time, you had an idea, an idea to bless the entire world by starting a new business from scratch. You fully invested yourself into the project – your time and talent and treasure – to make this enterprise successful, and it was very successful. After leading your business for many years without a single vacation...
Czerny as the new Lustiger, the ‘Jewish cardinal’ and papal contender...
Earlier this week, Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny, head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human development, was in Auschwitz to mark the 80th anniversary of the death of St. Edith Stein, the celebrated German Jewish philosopher who became a Carmelite nun and who perished in the infamous Nazi death camp in 1942...
Has Francis’ ally Cardinal Parolin dashed his chances of becoming pope?
Young, in love — and at risk of mortal sin...
On June 15, the Vatican released a 97-page document, “Catechumenal Itineraries for Married Life.” The document, which was published by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, is a pastoral tool intended to help dioceses and pastoral staff develop effective marriage preparation programs that will lead couples to deeper love and a greater appreciation for God’s role in their family life...
St. Clare of Assisi, Pray For Us!...
Chiara Offreduccio (1194-1253) came into the world in a wealthy family in Assisi but, like her spiritual mentor St. Francis of Assisi, renounced the world to follow Christ in a life of strict poverty. She founded and wrote the rule for Order of Poor Ladies which, after her death, would be known as the Order of Poor Clares, the second branch of the Franciscan Order (the male branch...
Here is the real reason young people are leaving the Faith...
Singer Olivia Newton-John said this prayer every day after God saved her baby’s life...
Singer and actress Olivia Newton-John passed away from breast cancer on Monday. The Australia-native’s battle with breast cancer began in 1992. After years of remission, it returned in 2013. The cancer then spread to her back in 2017. The ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ singer and ‘Grease’ actress spoke on a podcast last year about her 1985 pregnancy with her only daughter...
Another red hat for a McCarrick ally...
Four years have passed since Theodore McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals. We are still coping with the aftershocks of the scandal he caused. Moreover—the reason I write about this subject today—we are still coping with the clerical system that allowed that scandal to fester unchecked for so many years. A few months after his resignation...
‘A wall of flame in the women’s restroom’: Why Starbucks is closing stores across the country...
Why did the floor of a Spanish monastery turn blood red once a year for almost 500 years?
Drive-by gunshots target Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary church near Denver...
Roman stunner: More or less, the Vatican tells the truth about its money...
Public Masses Suspended at Chicago’s Shrine of Christ the King...
This Sunday, Our Lord sees 2022 Catholics and tells us, ‘Do not be afraid any longer’...
When is the pope infallible?
Many people have a difficult time discerning when the Magisterium has engaged its infallibility and when it hasn’t. I once came across an instance where a Jehovah’s Witness was trying to make hay with the papal bull Exsurge Domine, and I thought the case might be instructive for seeing the delicacy with which such matters have to be treated...
When God became man, he became a man who had friends he liked. Not just loved, but liked...
The meme popped up on my Facebook feed, shared by a friend and liked by a lot of people. It said, “Jesus didn’t dine with tax collectors and sinners because he wanted to appear inclusive, tolerant, and accepting. He ate with them to call them to a changed and fruitful life, to die to self and live for him. His call is transformation of life not affirmation of identity...
Childlike people go to Heaven and childish people go to Hell...
“Unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” So says Christ in St. Matthew’s Gospel. Yet St. Paul, seeming to contradict Christ, tells us that when he was a child, he behaved like a child, but now that he is old, he has “put away childish things.” Is this not an example of the Gospel “truth” contradicting itself...
Cardinal Zen and 5 Others to Stand Trial in September Over Trumped-up Charges in Hong Kong...
Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications goes online with survey for Synod on Synodality...
Jimmy Akin’s radio audience includes many non-Catholics, agnostics and atheists who try to trip him up with challenges to the faith. He answers respectfully, using logical arguments to defend the teachings of the Church, reminding his listeners that as a convert, he too faced similar obstacles before deciding to become a Catholic...
Manners make life truly human by (among other things) cultivating reverence for our elders...
At the center of our current moral, social, and cultural malaise is a rejection of what has been handed down to us, and a kind of idolatry of new and purportedly better and enlightened ways of living. This rejecting of tradition goes hand in hand with prioritizing one’s own feelings and desires. And it is literally embodied in our failure to honor age...
Overlaps between ‘Stranger Things’ and the Catholic thing...
Since its debut in the summer of 2016, Netflix’s Stranger Things has been one of the most-watched programs on the streaming giant’s platform. Season 4, which was released in two volumes, racked up over 278 million hours of streaming in its first weekend of availability. The show, created by the Duffer Brothers, has maintained high levels of viewership each season...
How a Carmelite philosopher (Edith Stein) and a journalist priest (Titus Brandsma) were martyred by the Nazis 80 years ago...
The 80th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) — canonized in 1998 and declared by St. John Paul II a co-patroness of Europe — is a reminder of the drama of the summer of 1942. Just a few weeks before Teresa was martyred at Auschwitz, Titus Brandsma, canonized just this past May, was killed at the Dachau concentration camp by lethal injection in the camp “infirmary”...
Reacting to Pontifical Academy, Theologian Says Teaching of Humanae Vitae Can’t Change...
Pontifical academy tweets confusion, St. Edith Stein, and a ‘Body of Christ’ party...
Two teachings of the Lord that correct flawed notions of judgment...
12 Polish Pilgrims Bound for Medjugorje Killed in Bus Crash in Croatia...
A parish under siege, a spurious argument, and baseball in heaven...
Erdő vs. Tagle: the battle to be the next pope [Catholic Herald paywall]...
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