The gospel reading for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time is the Parable of the Widow and the Unrighteous Judge (Lk 18:1–8). The figure for God the Father in this parable is, interestingly enough, an unjust judge, that is, one who has no fear of God and no respect for any human being....
As far as the Church is concerned, the social message of the Gospel must not be considered a theory, but above all else a basis and a motivation for action. Inspired by this message, some of the first Christians distributed their goods to the poor, bearing witness to the fact that, despite different...
Earlier this week, just a few days before the release of Dilexi te, I read a talk delivered by financier and major Catholic donor Frank Hanna III, given at the Napa Institute summer conference this past July. Nothing could possibly present a sharper contrast to the vision of Catholicism presented by the Holy...
It is well known that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Still, if St. Paul didn’t mind “speaking like a fool,” who am I to hesitate to follow in his footsteps? Alright, here goes. It is no secret – except possibly to some indigenous tribe lost in the Amazon jungle that...
I’ve heard a lot of commentary in the past week about Pope Leo XIV’s Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi Te. This isn’t surprising, Dilexi Te is Pope Leo’s first major teaching document, and there are many people, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, who are anxious to get a sense of who Leo is and what his papal priorities will...
In Sunday’s gospel reading, we see that only one of the ten who were cured of leprosy returned to thank Jesus. This is not to suggest that the other nine were without any gratitude—it is hard to imagine that anyone who knew the isolation and poverty of a life with leprosy in the...
Through the Scriptures, Tradition, liturgies, and devotions, people can encounter the living Christ and experience his love, healing, and freedom. But what happens when the women and men in the Church who are tasked with teaching doctrine, preaching God’s word, or presiding over the sacraments, do so with carelessness or coercion? What harm...
Life is not respected when we allow our nation to kill its enemies – including mostly innocent civilians – in war, ignore genocide being committed in real time, live with an attitude of indifference toward unborn babies brutalized by abortion, condone the death penalty, turn a blind eye to the uninsured sick and...
Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te, places the poor at the very heart of the Church’s mission, continuing and deepening the vision of Pope Francis. In this video, I share my first impressions of the document, unpacking its key themes and showing how it connects with centuries of Catholic teaching and...
It is important to note therefore that a world which is divided into blocs, sustained by rigid ideologies, and in which instead of interdependence and solidarity different forms of imperialism hold sway, can only be a world subject to structures of sin. The sum total of the negative factors working against a true...
On October 4th, Pope Leo signed Dilexi Te, his first Apostolic Exhortation. The document, which was much anticipated as a window into the thoughts of our new Pontif, was released today, October 9th. As Pope Leo explains in his introduction to the document, Pope Francis was preparing to issue this letter at the...
By Pope Leo XIV’s own account, Dilexi Te, his first apostolic exhortation (and first major papal document), is a text that “Pope Francis was preparing in the last months of his life,” to which Leo is “adding some reflections” (Dilexi Te §3). This is well, not only because Leo is interested in stressing...
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