Pope Francis surely sends many personal letters that don’t land in the headlines, but his remarkably warm and encouraging letter, sent in response to a note from Father James Martin about his nephew’s confirmation, certainly did. After Francis expressed his prayers and warm wishes for Fr. Martin’s nephew, he spent the rest of...
For much of my life, I’ve dealt with a persistent unease about the sex into which I was born. This wasn’t something I asked for, although it also hasn’t made me as miserable as some might assume. My unease has been more or less severe at different times—it was particularly bad in my...
Neither Pope Francis’s Magisterium, nor the Second Vatican Council’s documents, can be interpreted through a proper hermeneutic of continuity if one does not understand the concept of “doctrinal development.” Those who criticize those teachings, however, will often try to invalidate them by claiming that these doctrinal developments are illegitimate. One way they may...
Is division a necessary part of being a truth-telling Christian? Some Catholics, including clergy, point to Jesus’ statement in Luke 12 as a clear indication that divisiveness is part of our calling as Christians: Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather...
This week’s Postcard from the Camino is a quiet and subdued stage of the pilgrimage, at a point in southwestern France that you would not want to visit. If there is one section of the Way of Saint James that I would never wish to walk again, four days in my life I...
For those of you who had the pleasure of watching our most recent Critical Catholic livestream, you saw how the first 30 minutes were rife with all kinds of technical bugs. Sadly, we were unable to show Gareth Thomas’s video from his hermitage in the mountains of Spain. I’d uploaded it in three...
DW Lafferty, Nathan Turowsky, Mike Lewis and (joining from the mountains of Spain) Gareth Thomas discuss the latest controversy to strike radical traditionalism: is Archbishop Viganò TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE?? Starts at 8 p.m. EST.
A reflection on the readings for Sunday, June 27, 2021 — the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Graciousness /ˈɡreɪ.ʃəs.nəs/ (noun): the quality of having excellence of manners or social conduct. Synonyms kindness, courteousness, politeness, affability, benevolence. Perhaps you agree with me that the pandemic brought out the best and worst in people. For example,...
Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, OFM Cap., is a busy man. Just days away from his 77th birthday, one year past retirement age, he still serves as Archbishop of Boston, the fourth largest archdiocese in the United States. O’Malley has been a member of Pope Francis’s council of Cardinals since it was established in...
“Today, if we listen to the Spirit, we will not be concerned with conservatives and progressives, traditionalists and innovators, right and left. When those become our criteria, then the Church has forgotten the Spirit. The Paraclete impels us to unity, to concord, to the harmony of diversity. He makes us see ourselves as...
Two Intertwined Narratives Rod Dreher begins his book The Benedict Option by observing that the “culture war” is over and that the conservatives have lost it. If the war is indeed over, many of the warriors don’t seem to have noticed. Whether or not the culture war has been lost, its very existence...
It was a dull day in the Where Peter Is offices and not much was happening, apart from the Church falling apart in the Last Days; but that was no longer a story and we had a page to fill for Friday. The Managing Editor walked in and threw a Dictionary of British-American...
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