The world of American conservatism (and thus also a large segment of the world of American Catholicism) is embroiled in yet another moral panic: this time regarding what is described as Critical Race Theory. What most people mean when they talk about CRT is not specifically the decades-old school of legal theory that...
When I heard that Pope Francis had promulgated a motu proprio reimposing restrictions on the celebration of the 1962 Missal (or the Vetus Ordo), my first thought was this was greatly needed and long overdue. My second thought was that this would break the hearts of people whom I dearly love. It’s difficult...
This is the 14th installment in “Postcards from the Camino” by Gareth Thomas, a series of reflections on the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage route leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain. The last days on the Camino de...
A reflection on the readings for Sunday, July 18, 2021 — the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Last Tuesday, I was sitting on the steps at the South door of my church, waiting for those who might show up for an RCIA inquiry session. A parishioner drove up to the steps and handed me...
Yesterday, Adam Rasmussen and I joined my friend Josh Moldiz on the Holy Ruckus podcast to discuss the who, what, and why of Pope Francis’s motu proprio Traditionis Custodes restricting permission to use the Pre-Vatican II Roman Missal.
In his post yesterday, Adam Rasmussen explained the theological and ecclesiological reasons for Pope Francis’s motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes. In the midst of all the controversy, there is much hope to be found in this rather bold decision. I don’t say this to be patronizing or condescending toward those who prefer the older...
“The Sovereign Pontiff alone enjoys the right to recognize and establish any practice touching the worship of God, to introduce and approve new rites, as also to modify those he judges to require modification. Bishops, for their part, have the right and duty carefully to watch over the exact observance of the prescriptions...
Today the Holy Father, Pope Francis, stunned the Catholic media sphere by abrogating Pope Benedict XVI’s controversial 2007 Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum (SP). Francis wrote in his own Motu proprio Traditionis Custodes: I take the firm decision to abrogate all the norms, instructions, permissions and customs that precede the present Motu proprio, and declare...
Obviously there’s a lot more to say, but I think the key to Pope Francis’s decision to abrogate “Summorum Pontificum,” Benedict’s document that liberalized the use of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, in the motu proprio “Traditionis Custodes” is that Pope Benedict XVI’s decision failed spectacularly in doing what it set out...
I have two Pope Francis quotes for you today, both regarding bishops, delivered by US papal nuncio Archbishop Christophe Pierre at the recent ordinations of two American bishops. Earlier today, reader Joseph Snearline shared with me Archbishop Pierre’s homily at the June 29 Mass of Ordination and Installation of the Bishop James R....
Recently, “Pints with Aquinas” podcast host Matt Fradd posted a quote on his Facebook page by the well-known Companions of Christ priest Fr. Mark Goring, in which the Canadian-born pastor said, “The Lord is anointing the traditionalists. When people go to traditional masses, they’re experiencing God, and they’re staying, and it’s causing them...
“In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art. Art must make perceptible, as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the indivisible, of God. It must therefore translate into meaningful terms that which is in itself ineffable. Art has a unique capacity to...
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