there is the Church
This is the first in a projected series of essays dealing with the phenomenon of “loneliness,” beginning with a discussion of the loneliness described to Pope Francis in the “youth encounter” in Tokyo, and moving from there into a broader view. In Japanese-American author Ruth Ozeki’s 2013 novel A Tale for the Time...
On the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, Pope Francis has named Cardinal Tagle as the New Prefect of the Congregation of the Evangelization of Peoples. This position (also called “The Red Pope”) is considered a top Vatican post, overseeing mission territories of the Church. He is the second Asian to be...
Earlier today, my mother, Patricia Lewis, passed away at home after a long illness. She was surrounded by family and friends when she drew her last breath. Just before her final moments, my brother and I sang the first two verses of one of her favorite hymns, “Immaculate Mary.” Due to December 8...
This is the first in a projected series of essays dealing with the phenomenon of “loneliness,” beginning with a discussion of the loneliness described to Pope Francis in the “youth encounter” in Tokyo, and moving from there into a broader view. In Japanese-American author Ruth Ozeki’s 2013 novel A Tale for the Time...
On the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, Pope Francis has named Cardinal Tagle as the New Prefect of the Congregation of the Evangelization of Peoples. This position (also called “The Red Pope”) is considered a top Vatican post, overseeing mission territories of the Church. He is the second Asian to be...
Earlier today, my mother, Patricia Lewis, passed away at home after a long illness. She was surrounded by family and friends when she drew her last breath. Just before her final moments, my brother and I sang the first two verses of one of her favorite hymns, “Immaculate Mary.” Due to December 8...
Ellie follows me on social media. She doesn’t like Pope Francis and is always looking for clues that she correlates with her daily overdose injections of LifeSiteNews, Remnant, 1P5, NovusOrdoWatch, Rorate, and Arroyo to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Vicar of Christ is the personification of evil, the devil...
“The profound sense that the earth is “suffering” is also shared by those who do not profess our faith in God. Indeed, the increasing devastation of the world of nature is apparent to all. It results from the behaviour of people who show a callous disregard for the hidden, yet perceivable requirements of...
Some people have reacted with hostility or mockery to my articles about the Pope Bashers behaving like Luther or Calvin. Presumably they think I mean they share the same errors on theology. Since they know they don’t, they think I’m making wild claims. But that misses the point. My point is that, whether...
Tuesday afternoon, the diocese of Peoria, IL, issued a press release that shook the US Catholic Church. In it, Bishop Daniel Jenky announced that the long-anticipated beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, scheduled for December 21, would be postponed indefinitely. After years of tug-of-war between Peoria and the Archdiocese of New York over...
The debate touched off by Senator Marco Rubio’s recent speech at the Catholic University of America reveals major fault lines within current Catholic thinking in the United States. What Rubio, who is Catholic, pointed out in his speech seemed straightforward enough: capitalism has led to a growing inequality. Many, especially the young, feel...
In my last post I looked at Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s concept of the Revolution as outlined in Revolution and Counter-Revolution, which is a defining text of the Tradition, Family and Property movement. In this post I will examine the complementary concept of the Counter-Revolution and provide examples of some of its implications....
Since Pope Francis’s election in 2013, a feeling has emerged that Catholic discussions about moral issues are essentially now being spoken in two different languages. There is a “Franciscan” language focusing on broad issues of what social philosophers call the Good Society, such as immigration and the environment. There is also a “pre-Franciscan”...
America is a melting pot of various cultures and traditions. As American Catholics, we have a unique perspective on both the benefits and the challenges that this can bring as we seek to evangelize in our schools and communities. Multiculturalism, as Pope Francis describes it in several different speeches and letters, can help...
In my past articles covering the controversy around the carved figure from the Amazon Synod, I arrived at the conclusion that–contrary to the accusations from the usual suspects–there is no evidence that a pagan ritual took place in the Vatican. The statue could represent, depending on who you asked, a kind of Marian...
Over the past two months, we’ve witnessed papal detractors create and exploit a controversy based upon actions done during a prayer service led by indigenous Catholics from the Amazon region on the eve of the Synod of Bishops. They’ve used it to propel a narrative seeking to undermine the Synod (and, by definition,...
One underreported event during Pope Francis’s recent trip to East Asia was a meeting with three Japanese young adults, who delivered personal testimonies to him. These testimonies shed further light on some of the themes of the trip overall. Such themes include the treatment of migrants and the need to confront widespread loneliness...
Today we celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving in the United States. Although this is a national holiday, for those of us with Catholic faith, “thanksgiving” takes on a special significance, because we know that all gifts and blessings come from God, and that the word we use for our ultimate gift, Eucharist, literally...
The Christian is one in whom the past and future meet in the present and unfold into a new vision, a new life. In Advent, especially, the Church invites us to reconsider our lives as the intersection of our history and our future. We remember the birth of Jesus and live in hope...
Over the past six years, it’s become clear that Pope Francis generates his most provocative and unexpected headlines on airplanes. Sometimes this happens when he’s overheard while greeting reporters as they board the plane before a flight. More often, his tradition of holding a free-wheeling, on-the-record press conference with reporters on the return...
You may have heard of an ultra-conservative Catholic group called Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), which has been involved in various efforts to oppose the initiatives of the Francis papacy. As Christopher White from Crux recently reported, Alexander Tschugguel, the man who stole the famous “Pachamama” statues from the Roman Church of Santa...
As the liturgical year winds down, the readings at Mass and in the Divine Office reflect on the end of days. In his homily at the Mass commemorating the World Day of the Poor on November 17th, Pope Francis reflected on how our earthly life is temporary and that ultimately all that will...
“Opposition to the pope is not new, but what is new is the level and intensity that is there…It’s the insidiousness of the opposition movement that I think is scandalous for us.” Archbishop Wilton Gregory, the new archbishop of Washington, DC, made that statement last week during a panel discussion at Georgetown University....
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