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Category: Commentary

Thomas Reese’s Eucharistic Incoherence

Given the divisions and confusion present in Catholicism today, it boggles the mind that a well-known priest would deem it prudent to make a public argument pushing for a dramatic overhaul of the Catholic lexicon surrounding the Eucharist. And yet...

Magistra si, Mater no?

Certain political and ideological currents within the Catholic Church treat almost any contemporary exercise of magisterial teaching as cause for pessimism, suspicion, and worry. In this way of thinking any new teaching that isn’t a straightforward reiteration of previous teaching...

Chaput’s shiftiness on Amoris Laetitia

This is the third (and hopefully final) installment in a series on the Pillar’s interview with retired Archbishop Charles Chaput, a man whose opposition to Pope Francis and his teachings appears to run deep. In my first article, I addressed...

Get Out of the Boat

Recently I attended a Catechist formation training day at a local diocesan training center and one of the keynote presenters was musician Steve Angrisano (www.steveangrisano.com). If you’ve never had the pleasure of attending one of his events or listening to...

Chaput, substance, and “personality debates”

Yesterday, in the first part of my response to retired Archbishop Charles Chaput’s interview with the Pillar, I challenged the 78-year-old’s rejection of the concept of synodality and his denial that it was the fruit of Vatican II. Although he...

Archbishop Chaput’s opposition to the pope

On Friday, the Pillar published a new interview with the retired Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, OFM Cap, under the headline “Chaput: ‘Speaking the truth is polarizing.’” The 78-year-old responded to a series of questions about Pope Benedict, Cardinal Pell,...

Gänswein’s interview: A blow to three missions

Shortly after the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI,  the German Catholic magazine Die Tagespost published a video of an interview between editor-in-chief Guido Horst and Archbishop Georg Gänswein, former private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI. Afterwards, several media outlets...

Is it Time for the TLM to Go Away?

Pope Francis is right: it is necessary to return to a single, unified Roman Rite and leave the “Traditional Latin Mass” in the past. And our personal liturgical preferences have absolutely no bearing on the matter. As conservatives have grown...

The mysterious inner life of the pope emeritus

From February 11, 2013 — the day Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation — to the present, disparate claims and theories about the thoughts and opinions of the former pontiff have been ever-present. The speculation began with theories about Benedict’s...

Taylor Marshall, traditionalist scapegoat?

When he has finished purging the inner sanctuary, the tent of meeting and the altar, Aaron shall bring forward the live goat. Laying both hands on its head, he shall confess over it all the iniquities of the Israelites and...

Understanding the liturgical reform

I thought I’d close out the week with a little linkaround, sharing some liturgical thoughts and reading that you might find interesting. First off, on November 23, the fifth and final installment in the series by theologians John Cavadini, Mary...