By Eamonn Clark, STL
Showing most recent 6 items by this author.
“Shrinking” vocations: the McGrath report on seminary reform, pt. 2
No doubt many young men are earnest and sincere in their desire to pursue Holy Orders to serve the Church. But if they are addicted to pornography and need a twelve-step program to get out of this habit so that they can begin to focus on their studies, their prayer, their personal habits, and their pastoral experiences, they need to be excluded from the seminary formation program altogether.
“Shrinking” vocations: the McGrath report on seminary reform, pt. 1
There is disagreement over the value of the psychology for seminary formation and priestly life, and grave concern over its weaponization. An “expert scientific opinion” on a man’s personality is a serious tool which can be wielded in any number of ways. It could be used to punish the man for ideological differences. It can be deployed as evidence of unsuitability for ordination altogether, especially when coupled with cherry-picked examples of behavior or skewed readings of his self-evaluations.
The Revenge of Amoris Laetitia
Perhaps instead of looking for non-existent moral loopholes in avant-garde deepities about “discernment,” the bishops at the upcoming encounter with the Holy Father could spend some time with the blunt words of the Lord on adultery, not only His direct teaching on divorce and remarriage, but also His dialogue with the woman at the well. How are we going to inspire the divorced and remarried Catholics to the kind of transformation which she had?
Prodigal Bishops and the SSPX
The Prodigal Son is principally a lesson about the Gentiles and the Jews. That is not to say that there is no other legitimate application—of course, it is used to exhort individual faithful to receive God’s mercy in the confessional. I propose that another way to make this story come alive in our own day is in the ecclesio-drama playing out in the aftermath of the SSPX consecrations.
“My Will Be Done”: On the SSPX Consecrations
Every schismatic and every disobedient person claims they are acting for the greater good. Yet the greatest good lies in doing the will of God, even when one is the subject of a superior with less talent than oneself, and even when the superior is evil. Even should bad motives enter into a command which is materially legitimate, God’s motives are never bad.
Theology of the Shoddy
Many complain about the “Spirit of Vatican II,” a progressive attitude about doctrine and liturgy which makes poorly-grounded appeals to the texts of the Council. I propose that there is also a “Spirit of the Theology of the Body,” a progressive attitude towards sexuality which makes poorly-grounded appeals to the texts of John Paul II’s catecheses: such as the Theology of the Body Institute's defense of tongue-kissing between unmarried couples.
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