Last week, I wrote about a group of US bishops, with the help of friendly media outlets, that has tried to convince Catholics that their initiatives, decisions, and public positions were in step with the pope’s message, even though they clearly weren’t. My article focused on one very conspicuous example of this –...
Five years ago, my wife, Kristina, and I had just had our fourth child, we were dealing with postpartum anxiety, depression, infant-induced sleep deprivation, and the real, daily struggles of having four kids under five years old. On top of this, we were learning and using our third method of Natural Family Planning...
On Monday, Pope Francis apologized to Indigenous Canadians for the Catholic Church’s role in the abuse of children at residential schools. Many of these schools were operated by the Church and funded by the Canadian government as part of a concerted effort to assimilate Indigenous People into European-Canadian culture. In the residential school...
In her autobiography, St. Teresa of Avila describes a challenge she was not able to meet. It was around 1542, and Teresa was having experiences that caused her serious concern. I arranged that the priest I said was such a servant of God would come to speak to me. … I was most...
Friday’s unexpected statement from the Vatican Press Office on the German Synodal Path struck many observers as unusual, and its brevity – only two paragraphs – left many scratching their heads. Not a few commentators seemed to think that this was an attempt by the Vatican to put the brakes on some of...
On July 22, 2022, Pope Francis issued the motu proprio Ad Charisma tuendum, explaining how the personal prelature of Opus Dei would be affected by the Holy Father’s reform of the Roman Curia. According to this document, the competencies regarding personal prelatures will be transferred from the Dicastery for Bishops to the Dicastery...
A reflection on the scripture readings for July 24, 2022, the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Old Testament is not light on stories of divine punishment and destruction. One of the necessary tasks to have a mature, integrated Biblical faith is learning to reconcile tales of a vengeful God with those that...
You [Native Americans] represent the first inhabitants of this immense region of North America. For many centuries you have marked it with your imprint, your traditions, your civilization. (…) Over the centuries, dear Native Americans, dear Inuit, you have progressively discovered in your cultures specific ways of living your relationship with God and...
On July 14, the retired theology professor Larry Chapp published a response in Catholic World Report to a recent article of mine about Pope Francis’s exhortation Amoris Laetitia. In it, I sought to refute a common argument levelled against Amoris Laetitia’s orthodoxy: that it espouses proportionalism, an erroneous current in moral theology that...
We’ve finally reached the point where it’s become impossible to ignore the dissonance between Pope Francis and the leadership of the US Catholic bishops. For years, many leading US bishops—aided by a cadre of allies in Catholic media—have been bound and determined to paint USCCB leadership as closely aligned with the pope, even...
Listen on: Apple | Google | Spotify Please enjoy our season finale of Field Hospital with Christopher Lamb. From US Catholic: Throughout the podcast season, Mike and Jeannie have talked to different writers, church leaders, theologians, scholars, and activists about the many kinds of wounds the world experiences and how the church can help to heal these wounds....
In his 1882 lecture “What is a nation?”[1] French historian Ernest Renan examines a number of essentialist theories offered in explanation of the “right of nations” – unity of race, common language, religious affinity, natural geographical frontiers – and he rejects them all. These, he thinks, are mere “metaphysical and theological abstractions.” Yet,...
Popular Posts