Commentary
Controlling Narratives
We can read the four Gospels in an afternoon. But we have the rest of our lives to “connect the dots” with commentary and self-application as we encounter the risen Christ in the Sacraments.
Free eBook:
Free eBook: Essays in Apologetics, Vol. II |
On the sacrifice of telling the truth
Surprisingly, one of the biggest sacrifices we can make nowadays is to tell the truth. Consequently, when others assert incredibly stupid or deliberately negative things about God, the Church or morality as known through both Divine Revelation and the natural law, our most common response is likely to be silence.
‘For zeal for thy house has consumed me’
Four hundred assaults on Catholic churches in the US in the past four years. That comes to roughly two incidents of violence or vandalism directed at our churches every week.
Cabrini and the denial that Christ is for everyone
Cabrini's director justifies downplaying the saint's religious identity and Catholic faith by saying he wanted to tell a more "universal" story - one that would "celebrate the power of the woman's voice". But why is “the power of the woman’s voice” more universal than the woman’s relationship with Christ? Is our culture’s inordinate preoccupation with female “firsts” (a preoccupation certainly not shared by St. Frances Xavier Cabrini) more catholic than Catholicism itself?
4.8 Novatian: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly, Pt 1 (The Good)
Novatian of Rome is an extremely important, but conflicted, character in the early Church. On the one hand, he clarified and helped define the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, preparing the Church for the ecumenical councils. On the other hand, he was the central figure of a schism in a controversy over the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. In this first part of a two-part series on Novatian, Dr. Papandrea discusses the positive contributions of Novatian.
The welcome message of the Irish referenda
The Catholic social thought that guided the framing of Ireland’s constitution simply recognized the realities of human life, dictated not by the hierarchy but by the natural law.
Psalm 18: For Christians, a caricature of God’s mercy?
We are, of course, supposed to be very grateful to God whenever He extracts us from harsh human troubles, but the Christian is also supposed to understand that if God chooses to relieve our suffering, it is not owing to our own righteousness. In the first place, it is just as likely—nay, certainly more likely at some point—that He will ask us to bear a cross; in the second place, honesty compels us to admit that it is not only our opponents and our enemies who have sinned.
175—St. Aldhelm’s Riddles, Poetry & Public Service—A.M. Juster
Today’s guest is a man with two names and two careers. For decades he has been a distinguished poet and translator under the name of A.M. Juster. This is an acronym for his Christian name, Michael J. Astrue, who for many years was a lawyer, biotech executive, and public servant, most notably serving as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 2007 to 2013. During this time, his political enemies tried to dig up dirt on him – but all they could find was that he wrote poetry on the side!
Nicodemus Survival Tactics
Unlike the laity smothered by corporate and government political correctness, priests and bishops have no excuse for failing to preach the Gospel.
The Shepherd of Hermas | Pt. 1 (Visions)
“So I wrote the commands and parables as he bade me. If you hear them and keep them, and walk in them, and fulfill them in a pure heart, you will receive from the Lord what He promised you. But if you hear them and do not repent, or even add to your sins, you will receive the contrary from the Lord.”
The queer pastoral care of the German bishops
Originally a derogatory term, “queer” has now been adopted by the more militant homosexuals (et al.), in defiance of conventional opinion. (“We’re here; we’re queer.”) And now it is this term— the term of defiance— that the German bishops have chosen to use.
Benedict XVI’s gift of wonder to the Church
A number of writers have attempted to express their thanks for Pope Benedict XVI&rsquop;s remarkable life of service to the Church. The latest effort, by Robert Cardinal Sarah, may well be the best. Sarah’s book is simply titled He Gave Us So Much, and even this title is an understatement when considering the late Pope’s theological and spiritual legacy. That legacy is marked by a depth which matches its enormous breadth, and is undimmed by the passage of time.
Cabrini secularizes a saint
Something struck me while perusing various Catholic reviews of Cabrini, the new biopic of the great missionary saint who served the immigrant poor in New York. The reviewers seemed to admit, tacitly or explicitly, what I observed in my own viewing: the film contains little about God, prayer, or Catholic spirituality in general. Yet, oddly, many of these reviewers don’t conclude that this is a fatal flaw in a movie about a Catholic saint.
Human and Divine Wrath
Anger is an element of our emotional makeup. But as with every other human faculty, we can use it as intended by God or abuse it.
Teaching America to fear Christians
Once the goal of the radical left was to push Christians out of the public debate on abortion. Now the more ambitious goal is to shove Christians out of the public debate altogether.
Strange news that makes you think strange things...
Sometimes the news can appear to be just plain strange. Sometimes the point becomes clear on further reflection. Sometimes it doesn’t. And sometimes it is clear that the figures in the story are missing the point altogether.
A loss for Vatican news coverage
You might ask: Why does the Wall Street Journal, a paper dedicated primarily to financial affairs, have a special correspondent covering the Vatican? Evidently the publishers asked themselves the same question.
4.7 The Heresies – Modalism: God as a Monad with Three Names
Modalism denies the distinctions between the three Persons of the Trinity, so that God is presented as, not a Trinity at all, but rather a monad with three names. Modalism can be expressed chronologically (the Father became incarnate as the Son) or functionally (the names describe activities like Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer), but either way, in modalism the Son IS the Father in disguise, which ultimately denies the real humanity of Jesus Christ and the reality of his passion.
What happened to the Christianity of the apostles?
There is a popular mythology to the effect that we must build only on what we have in common, which is less and less, instead of offering to others precisely what it is that they lack, which is more and more. The result, as the demons again gain in power over mankind, is a constant accommodation with the demons. The situation has gotten so bad that huge numbers of Catholics actually no longer know what to do about it even if they want to do something about it.
Kiarostami: blurring the line between documentary and fiction
There are many ways to make a movie. Only a few of those ways fit within the Hollywood mold. We believe that rather than taking pop culture as their sole model, Catholics and Catholic filmmakers should be open to a wide variety of artistic approaches. Thus, in this episode James and Thomas discuss the early career of the great Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who came up with an approach to filmmaking that is not just different from Hollywood, but different from anyone else in world cinema.
Endgame for a papacy of contradictions
But of course the Pope’s interventions in the Rupnik case have everything to do with the scandal. The reforms are on paper— and paper thin. The corruption is much deeper.
The Transfiguration Embodiment Game
The arguments in favor of the atomic bombings in WWII are familiar. It would be better that one city (or two) should die than the whole nation. The high priest Caiphas used the same argument when he conspired to put Jesus to death...
On Chesterton’s thrilling (and accurate) account of man
Of all of G. K. Chesterton’s books, I should say that by far the best is The Everlasting Man, in which he presents the human religious impulse as being fulfilled in Christ just as all the combined hopes of Judaism and Greco-Roman Civilization were, like an immense wave, curling into a thunderous collapse.
If Peter is the rock, where is the Pope?
When does a Pope teach with magisterial authority? When is he speaking for himself, and when does he represent Peter, the rock on whom the Lord built his Church?
174—Medieval Mystery Plays w/ Gregory Roper
Gregory Roper, a professor of literature at the University of Dallas, joins the podcast to discuss medieval “mystery plays” (also called “miracle plays”). In England these plays, often grouped together in cycles spanning all of salvation history, were performed by town guilds for the festival of Corpus Christi. This tradition, which developed out of the liturgy, could be said to represent the revival of drama in Europe, and was an important influence on the Elizabethan theatre.
Coming soon to a parish near you?
Count on it: there will be other similar efforts to do what the activists in Manhattan did: to celebrate sexual license and to ridicule the Catholic Church, which remains the most prominent institutional opponent to the unbridled satisfaction of lust.
Taking the grace of God in vain? Lent can help.
Even after we admit the truth of Christ and begin to pay attention to him in His Church, I am sure that most of us squander at least some of the graces we receive. Therefore, St. Paul’s plea, “We entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain”, becomes a wonderful point for meditation during Lent.
Back-to-Basics Lenten Resolutions
Peter – even with his failures and sins – is the model of the Catholic hierarchy. Do not allow the sins of the hierarchy to distract us from our love for Holy Mother Church and her sacraments.
ICYMI: another consolidation of power in Rome
When the Council of Cardinals was created in 2013, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras was named as the group’s chairman (the official term was “coordinator”). He continued in that role until March of last year, when having passed his 80th birthday he retired. Nearly a year later, he...
Want more commentary? Visit the Archives.