By David G. Bonagura, Jr.
Showing most recent 9 items by this author.
Will Pro-Life Marchers Boo Trump and Vance?
In 2025, the crowd eagerly awaited Vance. And his address did not disappoint. He called President Trump “the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes,” he declared that “we march to protect the unborn,” and he promised to return to the March in 2026. But when the vice president addresses pro-lifers this Friday, he will conclude a year when the most pro-life American president seemed thoroughly uninterested in living up to his own billing.
The liturgy wars you will always have with you
Urban’s new hymn was not received by the faithful. Monasteries that had their own breviaries refused to replace the older Conditor. The Creator was inserted into the Roman Breviary, where it remained for centuries to the chagrin of many. Father Adrian Fortescue, the historian of the liturgy, would later write: “No one who knows anything about the subject now doubts that that revision of Urban VIII was a ghastly mistake, for which there is not one single word of any kind to be said.”
A Rocker and a Doctor Meet in Birmingham
Cardinal Newman and Ozzy Osbourne have more in common than Birmingham. They are both products of the Via Media that the Church of England once purported to be. They both showed by their vastly different lives that this middle way is not viable. Newman took the high road and became Catholic. Osbourne took the low road against which Newman spent his career warning. The rocker shows the doctor’s work, still poignantly relevant, is still needed to bind the wounds of doubt that debilitate the modern age.
Stream of mercy: the forgotten feast of the Most Precious Blood
For over 100 years, the Church celebrated the feast of the Most Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in July. Then it fell victim of a strange irony: the post-Vatican II commission that was established for revising the liturgy, while seeking to implement Sacrosanctum Concilium 55 that admitted the faithful to receive the precious Blood of Christ at certain Masses, eliminated the feast of the Most Precious Blood. But we need not wait for the feast to be restored to receive its graces today.
The Challenge of Eucharistic Catechesis
Bold and creative events are necessary to spark Eucharistic faith, but their success hinges upon inspired liturgical and catechetical practices that take place daily and weekly, year after year. Repetitio est mater studiorum, for the Eucharist as for anything else.
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.
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.
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.
The Conundrum of Parish Involvement
Pastors rightfully seek ways to involve the lay faithful in as many aspects of parish life as possible. It’s a simple calculus: the more the faithful engage in various parish events, the more they come to love their parish. They will then support more events, make the parish seem alive and attractive to others, and, most importantly, their efforts will push them to grow deeper in their own faith.
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