Commentary
The Vatican (still) isn’t listening
Who profited by forcing Milone’s resignation, and who profits now by scuttling his appeal? Who was responsible for quickly lifting Rupnik’s excommunication, and who profits now by promoting his work?
Fasting, Abstinence, and the Measure of Faith
Individual Catholics, then, must choose their own acts of self-denial according to their personal discernment. How should they choose? Following our Lord’s challenges to His disciples, whatever they do must show that they love Him more than the things of this world. Our willingness to keep these resolutions during the inevitable temptations to acquiesce is the real measure of our faith.
St. Dionysius the Areopagite—On Minding One’s Own Business
"For if the Word of God commands us to pursue just things justly... this must be pursued by all justly, not beyond their own fitness."
On “synodality”—and why the Hydra doesn’t run the Church
The substitution of continuous consultation for effective ministry will always be disastrous. Certainly one can never deny the benefit to a priest or religious of getting to know the problems of the people assigned to his care, but if he seeks to give them primarily what they think they want, in most cases he will not be giving them what they need. It is only those who are already deeply committed to Christ and the Church—indeed, those committed without exception—who even know what they need.
A holy fool: The Island (2006)
James and Thomas discuss a minor classic of religious cinema, the spiritually edifying (and humorous!) Russian film The Island, about a fictional Orthodox monk and "holy fool" who has special spiritual gifts, but remains racked with guilt over a terrible crime he committed in his youth.
When attacking antisemitism, don’t fudge Church teaching
Dual covenant theology, the idea that the Jews still have a separate covenant that remains valid for them, is condemned by the Church. The only way the Jews can be faithful to the irrevocable covenant is to become part of the Catholic Church, the new Israel. Ironically, dual covenant theology, while attempting to preserve good relations between Christians and Jews, actually destroys the fundamental basis of those relations, which is the fulfilment of the old covenants in Jesus Christ.
St. Patrick, meet the Synod on Synodality
No doubt the organizers of the Synod process—of whom there are many—will repeat their sincere desire that everyone should be involved. But the plain home truth is that few people want to be involved.
Changing the World with Pure (or Impure) Thoughts
Impure thoughts disfigure human relationships and entire societies just as Jesus said: “Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
The pandemic and Pope Francis
Twelve years after Pope Francis was elected and five years after the Covid lockdown, the author reflects on what has changed.
What to do when the conclave comes
We never know the motivations of the anonymous cardinals who leak the conclave’s secrets, but we know they are untrustworthy.
When Churchmen seek to rally earthly troops
It is not for priests or bishops or patriarchs (or even popes) to encourage mortal combat; their role is to proclaim the peace of Christ, and especially to minister to the souls under their jurisdictional care so that they may become more Christlike in all things.
5.6 St. Peter Damian: The Medieval Jerome
St. Peter Damian (1007 - 1072 AD) is another one of our lesser-known Doctors of the Church, and yet he was, in his time, a man who could give advice to the Popes, and call for reform in the clergy and in the monasteries. Known as a Catholic reformer (long before the Protestant Reformation), he confronted clergy immorality, simony and lay investiture, as well as corruption in the process of the election of Popes, and he was a member of the first college of cardinals, as we know it today.
The structure of Catholic revolutions?
Massa’s failure to understand the people he portrays is evident especially in his concluding chapter, when he attempts to summarize his findings and explain the similarities he sees among these “fundamentalist” Catholics.
192—Latin learning and classical Christian education w/ Ryan Hammill
Ryan Hammill of the Ancient Language Institute joins Thomas for a practical discussion about how to learn Latin, as well as the central place of the classical languages (Latin and Greek) in classical Christian education, and the various schools of thought in today’s classical Christian education movement.
Trump and Vance are right about Ukraine
You don't have to run down Zelenskyy or Ukraine to support the Trump-Vance strategy on the war. You don't have to praise Putin or Russia either. You just have to see the world as it is.
Ukraine: Painful decisions about war and peace
At some point, the sheer slaughter has to be brought to an end no matter who has the moral high ground. Martyrdom is not too great a price to pay for defending a just cause; but the continuing slaughter of those who have no choice really does become, at some point, too great a price. Both Pope Francis and Donald Trump (for what it is worth) favor a search for a settlement which: (a) Abandons recriminations as fruitless; and (b) Offers a better way forward for both parties.
When will we fully embrace the Council?
What Pope Benedict said in a letter to his brother bishops, as he issued Summorum Pontificum, applies to all of the Council’s teachings, not just the proposed reform of the liturgy: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.”
Your sexual pathology doesn’t make you special
No matter what temptations assail us, it is part of the Christian vocation to face up to the truth about ourselves, and then seek conversion and healing. When we categorize ourselves in ways that justify our disordered inclinations, we are refusing the call to conversion. A Church that condoned this would not be a truly compassionate spiritual physician, but a field hospital staffed by quacks with a reputation for filling out ample prescriptions, no questions asked.
Don’t give Trump a pass on IVF
That Trump has promised to broaden access to IVF should be no surprise; he made that promise during his campaign. What IS a surprise is that some prominent pro-lifers have urged us not to complain.
Terrence Malick and the Knights of Columbus: Voyage of Time (2016)
The Criteria crew continues its series on the films of Terrence Malick, jumping ahead to the experimental documentary Voyage of Time, which was co-produced by the Knights of Columbus! Voyage of Time portrays the creation and development of the cosmos, the Earth, and the living creatures on it from the beginning of the universe to its end. The main point of the film is simply to evoke wonder at creation with its gorgeous photography, sound design and music.
Sicilian Pilgrimage with Mike Aquilina and Jim Papandrea
Mike Aquilina and Jim Papandrea discuss the origins of pilgrimage as a Christian spiritual practice, and the upcoming pilgrimage they are leading in Sicily!
The Apostle of a Happy Death
Let’s return to the reasonable natural-law ethics of a Greek pagan. Invoke the authentic Oath of Hippocrates.
Another sloppy petition in Evening Prayer
In the Eternal Rest prayer we are attempting to tie in one or more souls, the fate of which we do not know, with what we do know about the souls of the faithful departed; we are entreating God’s mercy and affirrming what we know about that mercy at the same time.
Vice President Vance deftly de-escalates conflict with Pope Francis
Call it Vanceism. Or the Vance Doctrine. A more specific subset of the populist nationalism—and a more Catholic one. Vanceism is the particular strain of Trumpism that Catholics should be rooting for.
Soul Garden: A Catholic Mother’s Collective
Catholic Culture's Book review for Soul Garden: a Catholic Mother's Collective edited by Hope Schneir and Sia Hoyt, printed by Ignatius Press.
A pivotal moment—for both State and Church
When nations seek to be dominant throughout the whole world, one of two things seems to be the case: Either they are looking for domestic wealth and power, in which case their distant “possessions” suffer exploitation, or they are looking for sources of cheaper production, in which case their own people suffer through the outsourcing of work. In the second case, it is only a slight exaggeration to observe that the rich become jet-setting tycoons and the poor become…opioid addicts.
A just man in an unjust war
He lost both those battles, was deposed, and lived in exile, in poverty, while the bloodshed continued. But in the process, by his fidelity, he won a more precious crown.
When diocesan abuse policies violate canon law
So the publication of lists of priests who have been “credibly accused” is an injustice, a breach of canon law, an offense against the healthy Anglo-American legal assumption that someone is innocent until proven guilty, and a violation of Vatican guidelines. Yet many American dioceses have published such lists.
100 tough questions for Catholics: Read responsibly!
Sadly, even when these questions are asked of fellow Catholics, the answers given may be either inadequate or false. And when that is the case, the result will be a declining faith and commitment on the part of the questioner. By selecting a broad range of questions with this precise problem in mind, Bonagura provides intelligent answers that impart the understanding necessary to get on the right track…and keep going deeper into the Faith.
5.5 St. Gregory of Narek: Doctor of Mercy
St. Gregory of Narek (c. 945-1003), was an Armenian saint - a monk, scholar, poet, and hymn writer. Praised as a saint by Pope St. John Paul II, who called by him the “great Marian doctor of the Armenian Church,” St. Gregory of Narek was officially proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis in 2015–one of the most recent additions to the list of the Doctors of the Church.
All about Lent and Holy Week: Book Review
Catholic Culture Book Review of All About Lent and Holy Week: Sharing the Seasons of Repentance and Salvation with Children by Katherine Bogner and illustrated by Shari Van Vranken.
The Pedagogy of Forgiveness
The rigors of Christian love purify our motivations for forgiveness. Justice gives mercy its meaning. So we must love justice and call evil by its name.
My thoughts as Pope Francis nears his death—or doesn’t
If our papa needs help, our goal must be to help him. Not out of any partisanship, any “party spirit,” this faction vs. that faction. But out of “the reality of my baptismal promises.”
Speculating about the Pope’s health
After a few days of those anodyne Vatican bulletins, reports in the mainstream media began to say that the Pope’s condition was worsening. Actually I think it would be more accurate to say that after his first two or three days in the hospital, the Pope’s condition was pretty much the same, but the few details leaking out of the Gemelli complex were revealing that his illness had been, from the outset, more serious than the Vatican wanted to admit.
Our politics must arise from a counter-cultural Christianity
These observations are incontestable. Without them, the only possibility is moral and political chaos. Therefore, the first step is to get people to acknowledge that an objective standard of human behavior is essential to human flourishing, and that without advertence to such a standard there is no possibility for controlling the misguided excesses which so frequently undermine the common good.
191—How the Church Invented Musical Notation—Christopher Page
The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years, by the great English musicologist Christopher Page, covers the development of Christian liturgical music from its origins as an elaboration of the role of the lector to its flourishing in the monastic and cathedral singing schools of France, as Roman chant was spread across Europe. One of the most important developments was the gradual development of a system of notation in the late first millennium.
The ‘ordo amoris’ and the bottom line
St. John Henry Newman explained the concept with his characteristic elegance, where he describes the love of family and friends— of those in the first concentric circle, if you will— “as the source of more extended Christian love.”
St. John Henry Newman—The Oxford Sermons | 2. The Influence of Natural and Revealed Religion Respectively
"The philosopher aspires towards a divine principle; the Christian, towards a Divine Agent."
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