In Singapore, where I am from, the festive mood extends all the way from Christmas until the beginning or middle of February, thanks to a festival variably referred to as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival. Sadly, for me this year, the mood was less than festive because of a crisis...
Panning for gold “is slow, backbreaking work.”[i] The panner stands knee-deep in cold, running water, scooping up the deposit at the bottom of the stream and slowly swirling it in his pan. The heavier rocky material, such as gold, remains in the pan while the lighter sand and gravel flows out with the...
Today’s General Audience address by Pope Francis brought tears to my eyes. It was the second installment of his Catechesis on Old Age. The title of this week’s teaching was “Longevity: symbol and opportunity,” and he spoke about why he chose to establish the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly in January...
The second episode of Field Hospital is released! In this episode of Field Hospital, Jeannie Gaffigan and I speak to journalist Kathryn Joyce about the rise of extremism within the US Catholic Church. Kathryn began reporting on the increasing visibility and influence of nationalist and alt-right currents within the Church in a an in-depth...
A handful of Catholic American intellectuals—notably but not exclusively Michael Novak, George Weigel, and Richard John Neuhaus—selectively and often purposefully distorted magisterial teaching in the decades preceding the 2013 papal conclave. Massimo Borghesi, professor of moral philosophy at the University of Perugia, in his new book Catholic Discordance: Neoconservatism vs. the Field Hospital...
There are so many questions we ask to learn more about one another’s stories. During the first weeks of college, freshmen will typically ask each other questions like, “Where are you from?” and “What’s your major?”. Beginning a job, new colleagues often ask, “Who did you work for? What did you do?”. To...
Pope Francis speaks a lot about social sins, such as environmental degradation, racism, and anti-Christian economic structures. He is not the first pope to speak about environmentalism, but he is the first Pope to have written an encyclical devoted to the topic. He constantly denounces the oppression and injustice of our global economic...
Since its release in April 2016, critics of Pope Francis have cast doubt over the doctrinal orthodoxy of his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. Some have argued that this document is unclear and ambiguous. Many have asserted that it contradicts infallible teachings of the magisterium teachings. A few prominent Catholics have gone as...
A reflection on the readings for February 27, 2022 — The Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time. The just one shall flourish like the palm tree, like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow. They that are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall...
The abounding wealth, with which God the Creator has enriched the lands that are subject to You, allow You to go on with the struggle; but at what cost? Let the thousands of young lives quenched every day on the fields of battle make answer : answer, the ruins of so many towns...
On Wednesday during his general audience, Pope Francis made an appeal for peace in Ukraine, and called for a day of prayer and fasting next week on Ash Wednesday: My heart aches greatly at the worsening situation in Ukraine. Despite the diplomatic efforts of the last few weeks, increasingly alarming scenarios are opening...
What’s the big deal about traditionalism? Surely it’s harmless enough? If people want their smells and bells, why not? Who knows? Maybe some of that old fashioned Catholicism will rub off on the modernized Church. Well…. as an ex-priest of the Society of St Pius X, I have a different view. The phenomenon...
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