Dei Verbum, chapter 4: The Old Testament The fourth chapter of Dei Verbum is about the Old Testament. It is shorter than the previous chapters (only three paragraphs) because it does not involve such difficult and controversial subjects. The first...
Unpacking Vatican II Dei Verbum chapter 3, part 8 In previous posts, I’ve explored what Dei Verbum says about how to interpret Scripture in light of its human authorship. Those principles of exegesis are essential for correctly interpreting what the...
Unpacking Vatican II Dei Verbum chapter 3, part 7 In my previous post, I explained why Dei Verbum says the Bible must be interpreted in its historical context. I focused on scientific issues, but the implications are much broader. Christians...
Pope Francis has repeatedly insisted that the countries manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines (such as the U.S. and U.K.) ensure they be equitably distributed, especially to the Global South. During his historic trip to Iraq, he said that “This crisis calls for...
In my previous post in my ongoing series about Dei Verbum, I explained how recognizing literary genres is crucial to sound biblical interpretation. Now, as promised, I will explain why historical context is also essential. Here is what Dei Verbum...
Two weeks ago Charles Camosy, a professor of ethics at Fordham University, published an open letter to Pope Francis in which he asks the Holy Father to give defense of the unborn a “more central place” in his formal teaching....
In his inaugural address today, President Joe Biden surprised me by quoting St. Augustine. (I expected him to quote Scripture, which he also did.) Notably, he called him “a saint in my Church,” referring to the Catholic Church. That reference...
Social media has given a big boost to Catholic traditionalism. What once was fringe has become almost mainstream, at least on the internet. When shared online, the teachings of the Catholic Church as set forth authentically by Pope Francis, his...
Today for the first time since 1814, the U.S. Capitol was violently seized. Although its hours-long occupation by rioters was nowhere near as catastrophic as that event (though one was fatally shot), this attack has the dishonor of having been...
My previous posts on the third chapter of Vatican II’s Dei Verbum (see here, here, and here) focused on the extent to which the Bible may contain historically-inaccurate statements. That was a largely theoretical discussion; as much as it vexes...
Pope Francis, in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, comments upon the use and misuse of the just war tradition within Catholicism (FT 256-62). His main point is that “in recent decades every single war has been ostensibly ‘justified’” by its apologists,...
Pope Francis’s third encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship, is a gift to the Church and to the human race. Building on previous social encyclicals, including his own Laudato Si’ (2015) and Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate (2009),...
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