Commentary
Pope Leo XIV faces a daunting challenge
The Catholic world rejoices at the election of a new Pope, even before getting to know him. The crowd in St. Peter’s Square applauds the announcement—Habemus papam!—without waiting to hear the new Pontiff’s name.
Rule of St. Benedict—Ep. 2 | Prayer and Community Life
"We believe that the divine presence is everywhere... But we should believe this especially without any doubt when we are assisting at the Work of God."
A vision like no other: Rethinking what we consider “life”
Most of us tend to be locked into a flattened materialist vision of reality, a vision (or lack of vision) thrust upon us by centuries of dominance by the modern Western “scientific” worldview, which is generally focused on only one aspect of reality: How do material things work, and what can we gain from that knowledge before we die?
We Watch for White Smoke
Review of "We Have a Pope!" by Katherine Bogner and illustrated by Kortney Senn, published by Emmaus Road Publishing. Includes coverage of the Papal conclave, cardinals, and Sistine Chapel.
Will cardinals reject a call for Church unity?
If any one of the cardinal-electors finds himself saying, “I could be comfortable with N as the Pope,” I hope he will see that as a reason NOT to vote for N.
Never let a papal death go to waste
No sir, not the least bit performative. Totally authentic!
Preparing for a bad pope
We should pray and fast for a good pope out of love for the Church, but we should not look for the next pope to “save” us so that we will not have to suffer or convert personally. God's Providence governs all that occurs, and all authority comes from God. While God does not guarantee us a good pope, whatever pope we get is the one He wants us to have - even if it is for our chastisement. And while we sometimes get a better pope than we deserve, we never get a worse pope than we deserve.
Seven questions for cardinal-electors
Why are you confident in this man? Because he is a good manager, or because he is a good man? Because he is clever, or because he is prayerful? Because he is a skillful diplomat, or because he is a loving pastor? Because he has good plans, or because he listens to the prompting of the Holy Spirit?
What outcome should we want from the papal election?
The current practice of synodality-as-democratized-input has become a demonstration of its own absurdity. There is a reason that Christ established the governance of the Church as a hierarchy. Any competent leader will know how to get the input he needs to govern well; but to turn the process of “inputting” into a central mechanism of governance is to completely misunderstand the fundamental nature of competent rule.
China’s puzzling influence on the conclave
By announcing these “elections” just before the conclave, the CCP exposed the weakness of that secret Rome-Beijing accord, and thereby damaged Cardinal Parolin’s standing.
Did Cardinal Becciu cut a deal?
The simple “fact” is that Cardinal Becciu will not vote in the papal election. There is no judicial body to which he can appeal (especially since he has withdrawn voluntarily), and in any event the conclave will be over before any appeal could be heard. So what does the sentence mean?
An orthodox reading of “mutual subjection” in marriage
Pope St. John Paul II's discussion of "mutual subjection" in Ephesians 5 must not be interpreted in such a way as to flatten marriage, nullifying the authority of the husband and the obedience of the wife. Nor should it be thought that John Paul II intended to overturn the way the Church has understood this passage for 2,000 years.
Trump is wrong on IVF—support restorative fertility instead
By any fair accounting, IVF fails on ethics, costs, health preservation, harm to women and children and even personal inconvenience. In addition to combatting the immorality of IVF, citizens should demand that the White House Domestic Policy Council conduct an open and fair process applying objective measures to both IVF and restorative fertility approaches. For both moral and pragmatic reasons, it is restorative fertility, not IVF, which deserves our support.
New Institute for Liturgical Formation begins this Summer (2025)
Beginning this summer, the Institute will offer twelve courses in liturgical studies over a three-year cycle, held each year during two consecutive two-week sessions during the month of July. The program emphasizes magisterial fidelity; theological richness based on Scripture, Thomistic theology and Catholic tradition; and daily worship, a common life and participation in liturgical preparation.
The Bureaucracies of the Global Church
As with any extensive organization, the institutional Church’s struggle with sinful, inefficient, and wasteful Church bureaucracies is ongoing. It extends from the Vatican through diocesan chanceries and to parishes.... But we do not worship Church leaders
Easter: Leaving Egypt
We cannot “renounce the world” out of sheer negativity; we must trust something else more in order to break that attachment.
195—The Most Influential Theology Book Nobody Reads—Philipp Rosemann
The standard textbook of theology in medieval universities was the Sentences by Peter Lombard, bishop of Paris. For almost four centuries, those seeking higher credentials in theology had to study, teach, and comment on Lombard’s Sentences. It was formative for the likes of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure.
The real Pope Francis Effect
Did we leverage the world’s affection for Pope Francis to evangelize it for the sake of the gospel? Or did the weirder aspects of the Francis pontificate drive us so batty that we instead wasted our energy fighting each other?
Facts—and fictions—about the papal interregnum
Is Cardinal Farrell the acting head of the universal Church during the interregnum? No.
Pope Francis’s Funeral and Tomb Showcase His Legacy
Tombs of popes and other heads of state do not merely hold the rulers’ earthly remains. They convey how the rulers wish to be remembered. They can also express other messages to posterity, typically ones that the rulers held most dear.
A pontificate marked by contradictions
In his most startling statements, Pope Francis never directly contradicted established Catholic doctrine. But by raising questions about previous teachings, and then remaining silent while more radical clerics proclaimed a change in doctrine, he undermined the traditional teachings.
Jubilation in Rome’s Eternity
To celebrate Rome today is to toast its secular and sacred histories for all their respective glories, respective failures, and the many conflicts between them. To do so in this Jubilee Year is to rejoice in the enduring power of the divine over finite secular might.
Whether or Not We Like It, Christ is Risen
We believers, atheists and Christians, share the same turmoil in life.. But those of us who actively believe in the Resurrection (and are keenly aware of our responsibilities before God) are less likely to view the world with paralyzing desperation than those with the pious and irrational hope that death ends it all. We fear God, not the actuarial tables.
5.9 St. Anselm of Canterbury: Father of Scholasticism
St. Anselm (1033 - 1109 AD) was Abbot of the monastery of Bec, and later, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the first of the medieval scholastics, and the first real systematic theologian. His treatise, Cur Deus Homo brought together biblical and patristic themes related to salvation and the atonement to provide the Church with a comprehensive (up to that point) teaching on the Incarnation and the Atonement, known as the Satisfaction Theory of Atonement.
Good Friday, good news, and the young
In terms of overall numbers, the situation for the Catholic Church is still pretty dire. But something is happening. And I’m struck by how much of it is motivated by the same things that motivated me forty years ago.
Ghosts of the Chrism Mass
As the Mass unfolded, I gazed upon the young and old heads and remembered the many priests I saw when I was young, but who have gone away. They are ghosts.
Entering the Paschal Triduum
How to follow the Paschal Triduum at home and church with traditions for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Includes liturgy, recipes, printables, paschal candle, eggs, lamb cake, foot washing.
The Eucharist: the ultimate reality
The Eucharistic Sacrifice, extended through time and space in the celebration of the Mass, completes Christ’s work of salvation, and thereby brings meaning to our lives. And when we neglect the historical reality of that Sacrifice, we immediately endanger our own understanding of human existence.
Breaking Habits of Self-Deification
Pilate’s skeptical and cynical remark echoes throughout history: “What is truth?” (Jn. 18:38) The question forms the crossroads of every human path.
Why young Catholics are rejecting feminism, Pt. 3: The feminist echo chamber
Even in their “Catholic” forms, feminism and masculinism exacerbate division between the sexes. This can happen by outright hostility, but also more subtly, with the drifting apart of concerns and mutual defensiveness that result from prioritizing the advancement of one sex. As Ratzinger wrote, “The proper condition of the male-female relationship cannot be a kind of mistrustful and defensive opposition. Their relationship needs to be lived in peace and in the happiness of shared love.”
Beware! The spiritual paradox of not being “everybody”
Whenever Church discipline from the next higher level has been lax, a great many Catholic leaders have made their livings preaching a reconditioned gospel with which the world can resoundingly agree. An even greater number of lay people have commended this practice, though it has never been a source of numerical growth—indeed, quite the opposite. There is great danger in trying to be like everybody else.
The Pope as (im)patient
No doubt other Vatican officials would have argued against his surprise visit to St. Peter’s basilica, and at a minimum insisted that the Pontiff be dressed in his usual regalia. And no doubt the Pope knew that. So he made the excursion without consulting anyone; he took the whole Vatican by surprise.
An economic interpretation of the Gospel
Matthew recounts incidents or images that do not appear in the other gospels. And that only make sense, he remarks, because the “ambitious tax collector—if he was familiar with Roman best practices of accounting, banking, and contracts—would be well placed to see the power of these economic analogies.”
194—The Church’s Hour of Testing—Fr. Donald Haggerty
A great spiritual master of our time, Fr. Donald Haggerty, joins the podcast to discuss his important new book, The Hour of Testing: Spiritual Depth and Insight in a Time of Ecclesial Uncertainty. He offers profound reflections on the ongoing, and perhaps future, crisis within the Church, with an eye to arousing an appetite for the greater spiritual intensity God desires his faithful to live out in this time.
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