Yahoo! News ran an interesting analysis of the US response to the synod on synodality on Tuesday. Every noun and adjective in that sentence other than “Tuesday” might typically raise eyebrows, but the article, by senior editor Peter Weber, did provide a useful overview of the wide range of opinions on the synod...
A reflection on the readings for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 16, 2022. In 2019, while preaching my homily on the same scripture readings we have today, I said, “I would like to take 2019 and just throw it somewhere.” My dad passed away in January; in June, Dayton was hit...
In this sense, clarity is not served by certain abstract subdivisions of the Church’s social doctrine, which apply categories to Papal social teaching that are extraneous to it. It is not a case of two typologies of social doctrine, one pre-conciliar and one post-conciliar, differing from one another: on the contrary, there is a...
Today’s late-night post is a podcast appearance by Catholic writer and economist Tony Annett, whose book Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy (Georgetown University Press, 2022) seeks to address economic inequality and injustice by applying the principles of Catholic social teaching. He joins the podcast Deacons Pod, which is...
There are many things wrong with Ross Douthat’s recent New York Times op-ed, “How Catholics Became Prisoners of Vatican II,” but the most glaring is his failure to mention the impact of the sexual abuse crisis anywhere in his 1400-word assessment of the past 60 years of Church history. Furthermore, his portrayals of...
During his return trip from Kazakhstan, Pope Francis was asked about the state of the Church in Germany. In response, he spoke about the importance of having pastors, not just pastoral plans. Too often, he said, we have put pastoral care in the hands of “pastoral scientists”; but without true pastors who are...
As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the opening of the first session of the Second Vatican Council, here is a snapshot of the world before, during and after the Council. One cannot understand Vatican II without understanding the Church in the years leading up to the Council. And no figure was more...
On Thursday, October 6, Cardinal Gerhard Müller discussed the ongoing Synod on Synodality and other topics in a roughly 30-minute interview on EWTN’s The World Over with Raymond Arroyo. At one point in the discussion, Cardinal Müller warned that the current synodal process could indicate a “hostile takeover of the Catholic Church,” and...
To introduce the year of St. Joseph, Pope Francis wrote one of the most beautiful letters of his papacy, his Apostolic Letter Patris Corde. Throughout the letter, the Holy Father reflects on many characteristics of St. Joseph. In his reflection on Joseph’s title “most chaste,” Pope Francis defines chaste love as “freedom from...
A reflection on the readings for October 9, 2022, the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time. A little boy fell off a pier into deep ocean water. Nearby was an older sailor who, heedless of the great danger to himself, dove into the stormy water, struggled with the boy, and finally, exhausted, brought him...
The Sermon on the Mount is not a social program per se, to be sure. But it is only when the great inspiration it gives us vitally influences our thought and our action, only when faith generates the strength of renunciation and responsibility for our neighbor and for the whole of society—only then...
It’s the proverbial elephant in the room that pervades nearly every community – often seen in those small, insular locations across the globe where “everybody knows everybody” – the concept of “other.” We can say it’s only human nature to associate with those with whom we have the most in common and to...
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