In an oft-quoted scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian—a film parody of Hollywood biblical epics—some Judaean dissidents, during the interval in a Roman circus in first-century Jerusalem, discuss their imperial occupiers. They pose the political question, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” As they develop their answers, they ironically catalog...
Pope Francis’s trip to Greece and Cyprus included a Sunday visit to the island of Lesbos to visit refugees and migrants at the the reception and identification center in Mytilene. This was his second trip to the site in five years, and he lamented the little progress that has been made in that...
A reflection on the readings for the Second Sunday of Advent — December 5, 2021 (Click here for audio) Here is a real-life conversation between a pampering grandmother and a pampered grandchild: Gigi: “Have you written your letter to Santa?” Bugaboo: “Why?” Gigi: “Don’t you want Santa to know what you want as a...
As many of our readers know, Pope Francis has been in the middle of an Apostolic Visitation to Greece and Cyprus. I apologize for not discussing it here sooner, but I finally got caught up on his speeches and homilies from the journey and there are two excerpts that resonated deeply with me....
“As for the State, its whole raison d’etre is the realization of the common good in the temporal order. It cannot, therefore, hold aloof from economic matters. On the contrary, it must do all in its power to promote the production of a sufficient supply of material goods, “the use of which is...
What is the “sacred”? Too often, we see it as the opposite of the mundane or common. This view is incorrect and can damage our understanding of the Faith. A setting apart In a previous essay for WPI, I explained that Christ’s coming tore the veil that kept God at a distance from...
In the week following the USCCB’s General Assembly in Baltimore, during which the bishops promoted their “Eucharistic Revival” and finally passed their long-anticipated and much-debated document on Eucharistic coherence, the Latin American Bishops’ Conference (CELAM) held an unprecedented ecclesial assembly in Mexico City, which was described in its final document to have been...
Editor’s note: This is the seventh article in “Combat For Contemplative Life,” a series about the responses — inside and outside the cloister — to Pope Francis’s reforms of the contemplative life for women in various communities. Part one, by Mike Lewis, “A Praying Heart: How Pope Francis intends to save the cloistered...
I am thrilled to share the news that beginning this February, Jeannie Gaffigan and I will be co-hosting a new podcast produced by U.S. Catholic magazine. The official announcement was sent out last night to the U.S. Catholic mailing list. I know a lot of our readers and fans of our podcasts and...
Thank you for supporting Where Peter Is. As you know, we provide our content for free, we keep the site ad-free, and we try not to bombard you with requests for donations. But, sadly, running and maintaining this site is not free. For the fourth year in a row, WPI has continued to...
My very liturgically-minded husband strongly believes—and advocates for—the correct implementation of the Advent season. It starts with no decorations before December 17 (that’s when the “O Antiphons” begin.) It continues with observing the emphases of the two foci of Advent’s Scripture—first two weeks on the second coming of Christ and the last two...
Let’s put CyberMonday’s commercialist tendencies toward the pursuit of good and spend some of our holiday dollars on the best Catholic books for children and adults, courtesy of CatholicsRead. And here is the required caveat. There are no strict criteria or reasons for why these titles are on these two lists. I interpreted...
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