Our Sovereign Pontiff
I would willingly have served an authentic master — a royal prince or a king. You can put your two hands folded within those of another and swear faith as a vassal… Of course it’s easy enough to say that...
Author: Paul Chu
The Next Pope: Pray for Him
The conclave is convened. It will not be long before the white smoke rises above the Sistine Chapel, and our next pope dons the white cassock and steps out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. The crowds will cheer,...
The Next Pope and Where Peter Is
Note: I wrote almost all of this before Palm Sunday. By the time I put the finishing touches on it, Monday or Tuesday of Holy Week, it seemed more appropriate to hold it until after Triduum. For obvious reasons, I...
UPDATE: Pope Francis in Critical Condition
Early this evening (UTC +1 – Rome time), the Associated Press reported that our Holy Father Pope Francis is in critical condition. Shortly thereafter, CNN reported a statement from the Vatican, that “[t]his [Saturday] morning Pope Francis presented with an...
Arbiter of Morality: Caesar or God
These are delicate times, in the Church and in the world. Our blessed Lord has already told us how to understand the state vis á vis the Church: Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to...
The Ordo Amoris, JD Vance… and Flannery O’Connor
The priest stood transfixed, his jaw slack. Mrs. McIntyre wondered where she had ever seen such an idiotic old man. “Christ will come like that,” he said in a loud gay voice and stood there, gaping. Mrs. McIntyre’s face assumed...
The Postliberalism We Actually Need
What is postliberalism? And why does it matter? The second question is easier to answer than the first. Up to the last couple of years, the distinctions and debates swirling among a handful of mostly Catholic or Catholic-influenced scholars and...
The Waters of the Font
One of the things we do here at Sacred Beauty, our small Association of the Faithful, is the composing of liturgical music, drawn largely from sacred texts of the saints, fathers, and doctors of the Church, in the hopes of...
The Crèche
Last night, as I was walking on the Green in my home city, I stopped by the crèche – nestled on the rough equivalent of half a parking space ceded by the city, installed (and funded) by my hometown multinational men’s...
What Is To Be Done?—The Church and the Poor
[This is Part 3 of the series “Religion in Society.” Click for Part 1 and Part 2.] What could the Church possibly have to learn from a 19th century radical novel that inspired Lenin and Xi Jinpeng? Well… it’s complicated....
America’s Civic Religion and the Dangers of Christian Nationalism
Click here to read the first part of Paul Chu’s series on the Role of Religion in Contemporary Society. In 1896, the great American psychologist and philosopher William James gave a talk to a collection of philosophically-minded Ivy Leaguers, young...
Sacred Duty or Spiritual Truth? The Role of Religion in Society
Much of everyday modern humanity takes the most basic value of religion to be its truth value, such that exposing a religion as false should be decisive. This is largely due to Christianity, and it has long been the position...
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