I’ve read much from Pope Benedict on the matter of papal primacy in the last few years, and it strikes me as interesting that unlike the other popes of the last century and a half, he almost always proposes a view of primacy that can be (and inevitably is) read in two antithetical...
I am a convert to the Catholic faith, having been raised in a non-denominational Christian home and subsequently drifting between various stages of belief and doubt, though always claiming to believe in Jesus even if I didn’t live for Him. In my last couple months of RCIA—as I enthusiastically looked forward to entering...
So while our own podcast has been on a bit of a hiatus for the last couple of months (but stay tuned for upcoming announcements on that front), I’ve been doing some listening to other podcasts. Here are some that I think will interest you. First, for something related to current Church affairs and...
During my time working at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in the early 2000s, people—friends and colleagues as well as strangers—would ask why I stay Catholic. Mind you that my first few years there included 9/11 and the clergy sexual abuse crisis, events that would challenge anyone’s faith in a loving...
Today is Labor Day in the United States, a day of rest for workers in this nation. The Church teaches that work is integral to human development — it is how people support families, save for the future, utilize their skills and talents, and even find dignity. As the Catechism teaches, “In work,...
On Sunday, August 29th, Pope Francis provided a brief exegesis of the day’s Gospel passage from Mark, in which Jesus berated the hypocrites who “honor God with their lips” but whose hearts are far from him. For those who have read Francis’s writings and listened to him speak, one could immediately see the...
A reflection on the readings for Sunday, September 5, 2021 — The Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time The Jesus of Mark’s Gospel doesn’t come to play. His mission is urgent and told at a breakneck speed. By Chapter 2, he can’t go anywhere without the crowds pressing in on him. The hunger and the need...
This throwaway culture has marked us. And it marks the young and the old. It has a strong influence on one of the dramas of today’s European culture. In Italy, the average age is 47 years old. In Spain, I think it is older. That is to say, the pyramid has been inverted....
At the height of my struggles with scrupulosity and self-accusation, my dad often attempted to console me by telling me that I wasn’t as bad as I thought—after all, I was “not killing anybody.” This was a thoughtful gesture, but looking back, it was theologically incorrect. One only needs to turn to the...
Six weeks ago Pope Francis issued an Apostolic Letter called “Traditionis Custodes” (“Guardians of the Tradition”). When I heard the news and read the letter, my first thought was, “thank God.” In this essay, I want to explain why, and suggest several points for moving forward. The letter had little impact on the majority...
Reuters recently reported that some Israeli rabbis had written the Vatican to express their “distress” about one line from Pope Francis’s recent addresses on Galatians: “The Law, however, does not give life.” According to Reuters, the rabbis worry that this expresses a belief even worse than supersessionism: “In his homily, the pope presents...
[Editor’s note: We are pleased to introduce a new weekly feature in collaboration with CatholicsRead, a free, email-based opportunity for Catholics to learn about the best and newest in Catholic publishing on a weekly basis. Titles range from children’s books to professional ministry resources and everything in between. CatholicsRead is powered by the...
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