On January 11th, Pope Francis began a new cycle of Wednesday Audiences by returning to one of his favorite themes: the difference between proselytism and evangelization. After commenting on the importance of evangelization in the Christian life, and reflecting on...
[Author’s note: Conservative Catholics sometimes argue that Pope Francis puts too much emphasis on the social dimension of Catholic teaching; they worry that such an emphasis on the communal will distort the Church’s moral teachings. In reality, however, the Church...
Reactionary Catholics often boast about the youthfulness of their movement. In many ways, the rise of reactionary traditionalism is playing out as an intergenerational struggle. While there are certainly many elderly traditionalists, and while the majority of young Catholics around...
‘Tis the season. The weather is turning colder, the colored lights are going up, family gatherings are being planned—and right on cue, one of the routine culture war battles is heating up. It is time to signal your allegiance; will...
Sometimes, the Church’s call to embrace voluntary poverty and her emphasis on the poor and oppressed can seem counterproductive. After all, growing in virtue is an important part of the Christian life—and wealth would seem to be conducive to such...
During his return trip from Kazakhstan, Pope Francis was asked about the state of the Church in Germany. In response, he spoke about the importance of having pastors, not just pastoral plans. Too often, he said, we have put pastoral...
Our public discourse is increasingly unhinged. In a recent article for WPI, Christina M. Sorrentino advises us to “think twice and tweet once.” She quotes an address Pope Francis gave to the 2022 World Congress of SIGNIS, in which he...
Reactionary traditionalists[1] criticize all sorts of things about the mainstream Church, from architectural styles to papal pronouncements, from ecumenism to the use of the term “Holy Spirit.” Among this storm of criticism, however, one overarching concern stands out; traditionalists feel...
Shortly after his election, Pope Francis called for a Church that “is poor and for the poor.” It is easy to understand why he would want a Church that is “for the poor.” Aiding the marginalized has always been a...
A friend of mine once said that apologetics is a mental disease. Obviously, this is an exaggeration; there is a long and noble tradition of Christian apologetics, and many great thinkers have produced apologia on behalf of the Faith. Still,...
Pope Francis has often condemned an over-intellectualized approach to the faith. In a 2018 Message for World Communications Day, he wrote: In Christianity, truth is not just a conceptual reality that regards how we judge things, defining them as true...
There is a damaging lack of stability in the US Catholic Church. The changing of pastors has become a ritual of parish life. Every six years or so, awkward announcements are made, goodbyes are said, and the parish priest heads off...
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