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Journalist Christopher Lamb provides an excelent preliminary analysis on Christus Vivit, as well as its context in light of Jorge Bergoglio’s lifestory.

In this excellent essay, Robert Christian explains the roots of American Catholic polarization, one of the causes of much of the dissent and division within the Universal Church. A must-read! Only by understanding the problem may we start to address it. “The various costs of polarization have led many to grow concerned about the rising polarization we are experiencing. But for Catholics with a sincere commitment to Catholic Social Teaching, elite polarization is acutely problematic because neither major pole is aligned with Church teaching. Both contemporary American conservatism and liberalism are rooted in an individualism that is incompatible with the Church’s understanding of the human person and community (…)As many American  Catholics take their cues from the ideology of their preferred party, a great deal of dissent from Church teaching exists on both the left and the right“.

On his flight back from Morocco, Pope Francis recommended this article from Gianni Valente, comparing the dissenting reactions to the abuse crisis with the Donatis heresy of ages ago: “Faced with the abyss of clerical pedophilia, the neo-rigorist homo-sexophobic reaction along with the “politically correct” technocratic one, even if ideologically distant, end up sharing with different accents the same conditioned reflections similar to the ancient Donatist heresy. The heresy that in the early centuries wanted to take away from Christ himself the effectiveness of the sacraments and means of salvation administered in the Church and make it depend on the dignity and impeccability of its ministers. The heresy that claimed to build a “Church of pure” and perfect through rigorous fidelity to the Gospel of the origins, entrusted not to the gift of grace – instant by instant-, but obtained by heroic effort of moral coherence and rigorous military application of disciplinary procedures. “

In an interview that made the rounds on Spanish-speaking world, Pope Francis replies when asked about abortion in cases of rape: “it is unfair to eliminate a human life to solve a problem.” This and much more can be seen here (in Spanish).

Pope’s prayer intentions for April: “For doctors and their humanitarian collaborators in war-torn areas

 


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Pedro Gabriel, MD, is a Catholic layman and physician, born and residing in Portugal. He is a medical oncologist, currently employed in a Portuguese public hospital. A published writer of Catholic novels with a Tolkienite flavor, he is also a parish reader and a former catechist. He seeks to better understand the relationship of God and Man by putting the lens on the frailty of the human condition, be it physical and spiritual. He also wishes to provide a fresh perspective of current Church and World affairs from the point of view of a small western European country, highly secularized but also highly Catholic by tradition.

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