It is not new for Catholics to grumble about a perceived lack of “backbone” from the pope. The failure of the pope to remove bishops who have gone rogue, to defrock priests deemed heretical, or to excommunicate openly schismatic leaders...
A reflection on the readings of Sunday, November 19, 2023 — The thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Speaking as a husband and father, I think St. Paul’s use of the image of labor pains coming upon a pregnant woman is...
It has been over 24 hours since the final document, or synthesis report, of the 2023 Synodal Assembly was published in Italian, but the English version has not yet been released (English and Italian are the two official languages). Once...
Pope Francis departed Rome on a flight to Mongolia today, becoming the first pope to visit the country. During the trip, the pope will visit and encourage the tiny Catholic community (with under 1,500 members) in Mongolia — a country...
One of the endnotes in George Weigel’s 2005 book God’s Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church retells the (likely apocryphal) story of an exchange that is said to have occurred immediately after the 1914 conclave...
One of the world’s smallest national Catholic communities, Mongolia, is anticipating Pope Francis’s upcoming visit, demonstrating the Holy Father’s willingness to travel great distances and minister to even a handful of the faithful. Announced on July 15, the pope will...
Coming up at 5:30 pm EDT! On this week’s episode of The Debrief, Dominic and I return for a look at three bishops from different parts of the world: one from Asia, one from Latin America, and one from Africa....
A reflection on the readings for June 25, 2023 — The 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time Are you ever afraid or disturbed, maybe even frequently? In preparing for this homily, I came across a beautiful quote from Blessed Clelia Merloni,...
On Wednesday, following the unexpected death of Australian Cardinal George Pell, Vatican journalist Sandro Magister revealed that Pell was “Demos,” the author of an anti-papal memo that Magister published back in March 2022, claiming at the time that it was...
Capitalism is an economic and political system in which most of a nation’s trades and industries (its capital goods, including the land and natural resources) are controlled (i.e., owned and managed) by private owners for profit, rather than by the...
Today, December 17, is Pope Francis’s 86th birthday, and earlier today the Vatican announced that the 17th-century Jesuit Matteo Ricci has been declared “Venerable” by the Church. He is now two steps away from canonization (beatification is the next step)....
After months of speculation, last week brought news of the renewal of the Vatican agreement with China on the selection of Catholic bishops. Along with this news, predictably, came biased and ill-informed negative coverage from various Catholic media outlets. Whether...
Popular Posts