James D. Conley, the Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, is in many respects a pretty typical example of the conservative-to-traditionalist flank of the American episcopate. He was critical of the Obama administration in its day; he inherited his see from the hyperconservative Fabian Bruskewitz and although he hasn’t continued some of Bruskewitz’s most toxic...
Chris Jackson at the Substack Hiraeth in Exile has generated some controversy recently with a number of hot takes on Pope Leo; I’m focusing here on one in particular, because it epitomizes a way of understanding the Church and the world. I’ve noticed Jackson’s work before; I truly admire the mastery with which it articulates a...
What if just a few pages could reveal everything about the near future of the Catholic Church? In today’s video, Pedro Gabriel explores why Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical—currently being drafted at Castel Gandolfo—might be the defining document of his pontificate. From his papal name and motto to the historical significance of first...
In the Gospel of Luke, today’s story of Martha and Mary is bracketed by the parable of the Good Samaritan that we heard last week and the beginning of chapter 11 that we’ll hear next week, which opens with the disciples asking Jesus how to pray and him teaching them the Lord’s prayer....
As Pope Leo XIV wraps up his two-week vacation at Castel Gandolfo, Catholic commentators have continued to speculate on and debate his views and priorities. They are prognosticating on the kind of pope he will be and on the decisions he will make in the years ahead. A little more than two months...
Last week, Pope Leo celebrated a Holy Mass for the Care of Creation at the Laudato si’ Center at Castel Gandolfo; for those wishing to reflect upon the texts from the Mass, a Latin original from the Vatican website with comprehensive chapter-and-verse Scriptural references for the readings and antiphons (thank you, Crisis Magazine)...
“You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church” (Mt 16:18) are the weighty, great and solemn words that Jesus speaks to Simon, son of John, after his profession of faith. This profession of faith was not the product of the Bethsaida fisherman’s human logic or the expression of any...
Note: This is the third article in a three-part series on masculinity. It is perhaps strange that a woman authored these articles, although there is certainly no dearth of men writing and speaking about femininity, so perhaps it is not so strange after all. Sometimes someone with an outside perspective can speak truth into areas that are too close for us to fully perceive, and it is...
Ten years ago, Pope Francis wrote the first environmental encyclical letter in the history of the Catholic Church. As he was writing it, so many of us who were, and still are, concerned about the sickening state of our wonderful Earth home, waited with hopeful anticipation. And when it was finally completed and...
Editor’s Note: This week, John Bellocchio, a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of the late Theodore McCarrick as a young teenager in Hackensack, New Jersey, forwarded me an email he received from the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey. The official who sent the email apparently forgot to delete multiple emails between...
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...
There exist a number of widespread criticisms of, or points of discomfort with, real or perceived Catholic doctrine on what we might call humanitarian grounds. The Catholic vision of the cosmos comes across to many non-Catholics and even to some Catholics as a harsh, punitive world, in which God, while perhaps less arbitrary...
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