Turning the page
Habemus Papam! God bless and protect Pope Leo XIV! What an eventful few weeks this has been! During Holy Week, Pope Francis surprised us by going out and about, visiting St. Peter’s and the tomb of Pope St. Pius X,...
Category: Commentary
The Peace of Pope Leo XIV
The first public words spoken by Pope Leo XIV struck me. “Peace be with you all!”, he proclaimed as he emerged from the loggia above St. Peter’s Basilica. Then he added, “Beloved brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting...
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,...
Pope Francis has changed us all
As the world awakens for the second day of the conclave, I find myself reflecting deeply on the future of the Church and the man who will soon occupy the Chair of Peter. We do not yet know who he...
The Princes of the Periphery
In the upcoming papal conclave we are seeing a lot of talk about “peripheral” or “Global South” cardinals—recent creations from Africa and Asia who are perceived as potential wild cards, often with eclectic views on the issues facing the Church...
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...
“Ardent Catholic” gives Two Thumbs Up to Salvadoran Gulag
Yesterday, Rep. Riley Moore, a Republican congressman from West Virginia, posted four photos to his social media pages. They were taken inside the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a notorious Salvadoran supermax prison known for its extreme conditions and capacity of...
Jesus for Money
Spy Wednesday, the Wednesday before Easter, is the day we remember Judas Iscariot’s meeting with the chief priests, during which he agreed to give Jesus to them in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. The sum was not nothing –...
Stuck in a Loop with Brugger and Ryan on Amoris Laetitia
On April 2, Dr. Christian Brugger and Fr. Peter Ryan responded to my article on Amoris Laetitia, which itself was a reply to another article they wrote in Catholic World Report. I must say that I truly appreciate their engagement. That said,...
Peter or Private Judgment? The High Cost of Rejecting Papal Teaching
I read the recent article in Catholic World Report on Amoris Laetitia by Christian Brugger and Fr. Peter Ryan, S.J. with interest. Pedro Gabriel has written a detailed and convincing response to the criticisms of Amoris Laetitia provided by Brugger...
When the Scales Fell from Our Conservative Catholic Eyes
There’s something that many right-wing Catholics—especially those who fiercely oppose Pope Francis—don’t seem to understand about people like me: we were once part of their world. We admired the same Catholic figures, consumed the same media, and shared the same...
Why are Amoris Laetitia’s critics stuck in 2017?
On March 19, Dr. Christian Brugger and Fr. Peter Ryan, SJ, “celebrated” the ninth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia with an article that feels less like a fresh analysis and more like a time capsule from 2017. I confess that, when I started...
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