Recent events have found Catholics grappling with what it means to be a Catholic Christian in a liberal democracy. To what extent do Catholic teachings apply in secular society? Should law explicitly support the practice of the Catholic faith? Or of any faith? Is it even possible to be Catholic and support liberalism?...
One of my earliest memories involves kneeling next to my Filipino mother at her home altar. Her altar has two Virgin Mary statues, one of sterling silver and the other of porcelain, and a Santo Nino. Santo Nino is clothed in velvet robes and wears a gold crown on his head. There is...
Pope Francis’s brief but historic visit to Iraq appears to have already become old news. Indeed, the Holy Father had not landed in Rome on his return trip before reporters shifted attention to future papal visits, including the scheduled September visit to Hungary and the likelihood of proposed visits to Lebanon and Argentina....
Unpacking Vatican II Dei Verbum chapter 3, part 7 In my previous post, I explained why Dei Verbum says the Bible must be interpreted in its historical context. I focused on scientific issues, but the implications are much broader. Christians are not beholden to the ancient writers’ assumptions about slavery and women, for...
Plato, one of the main philosophical influences on Catholic theology, believed in the existence of what are called the “transcendentals.” In Plato’s philosophical system, the transcendentals are “properties co-extensive with being”: abstract concepts around which existence and the material world are, in some sense, oriented. Other ancient philosophers believed in transcendentals as well,...
Richard Dawkins wrote in The God Delusion: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” Unfortunately, “the Old...
The most immediate image that comes to mind reading John Cornwell’s new book, Church, Interrupted, is a flower in bloom. At Where Peter Is we have struggled to keep pace with the controversies and misinformation spread about Pope Francis, and our proximity to all of the negativity colors our perspective. We can easily...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for March 21, 2021 — the Fifth Sunday in Lent This is the story of Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng, a Burmese nun. As you are likely aware, recently the military assumed power in Burma (Myanmar) in a coup that overthrew the democratically elected government. Many young people...
“In light of the above, it is clear that we can never separate, let alone oppose, faith and charity. These two theological virtues are intimately linked, and it is misleading to posit a contrast or “dialectic” between them. On the one hand, it would be too one-sided to place a strong emphasis on...
In the Divine Praises, Saint Joseph is called the “most chaste spouse.” Personally speaking, and given the dogma of Mary’s perpetual virginity, in the past I’ve implicitly reduced Joseph’s chastity to the simple fact that his wife was a virgin. With that being the case, his example of living chastely had little bearing...
Last night I joined Rachel Amiri, Melinda Ribnek and Paul Fahey for a lively discussion about the Feast of St. Joseph, the CDF’s response on blessings for same-sex unions, the concerns and struggles of LGBT Catholics and the Amoris Laetitia Family Year that begins today. Some aspects of the conversation were difficult. We...
St. Joseph’s many titles make one thing clear about his saintly role: it sounds exhausting. It also sort of sounds like our modern, busy lives, doesn’t it? Thus a devotion to the Sleeping St. Joseph, recently popularized by Pope Francis, has arisen and not without good reason: in the past year no shortage...
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