When we publish articles defending Pope Francis, some of our critics accuse us of being “ultramontanists.” Another line we frequently hear is, “Where were these guys during the papacies of Benedict XVI and John Paul II?” I can only speak for myself, but I will tell you where I was. For most of...
8 pm EST / 5 pm PST Join us in a few minutes as Rachel Amiri, Adam Rasmussen, Mike Lewis, and Melinda Ribnek discuss Pope Francis’s historic trip to Iraq, the Church’s teaching in favor of restorative justice over the death penalty, and the proposed Catholic community planned for East Texas.
Perhaps you’ve heard about the “massive new Catholic center planned for east Texas”? The launch plans for a new effort called Veritatis Splendor (after the encyclical of Pope John Paul II of the same name) indicate a vision far bolder than a “Catholic center” or a simple lay initiative of “homeschool families who...
While growing up in Canada, I vividly remember a moment that occurred during my elementary school’s lunch recess. Our prayer group, which met every Wednesday to say the Rosary, was just finishing up when a friend noticed a hung portrait of Pope John Paul II. He began to reflect nostalgically on the Holy...
One of the frequent complaints we hear these days is about the dangers of an internet insularity. It was one of Pope Francis’ brilliant points in Fratelli Tutti, that digital media has often created the illusion of relationship and connection but instead occluded it (#43). It is one of the internet’s great ironies,...
In my previous post in my ongoing series about Dei Verbum, I explained how recognizing literary genres is crucial to sound biblical interpretation. Now, as promised, I will explain why historical context is also essential. Here is what Dei Verbum says: Furthermore, the interpreter must seek the sense which the sacred author, in...
In the first week of Lent I learned a lot from the Fratelli Tutti Study Guide, which I chose as a focus for these forty days. Still blinking in the sunlight after breaking free from the radical traditionalist (or “rad-trad”) rabbit-hole, I took the following comment from the study guide as a keynote...
Some of my best memories have taken place around a table. Birthday parties, holiday meals, dinners with friends and family at home or at a restaurant. Food is an essential part of our physical lives but sharing meals is an essential part of our emotional lives. As Catholics, we know that the need...
TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault and violence that may be triggering to survivors. The last three popes have called for the abolition of the death penalty. In 2018, Pope Francis revised the official teaching of the Church to state, “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for February 26, 2021 — the Second Sunday in Lent There are things we know, there are things we don’t know, and then there is the unknown. The things we know help us to manage life. The things we do not know, we try to learn and...
Let us be blunt, even at the risk of being misunderstood: the true Christian is not the denominational party member but he who through being a Christian has become truly human; not he who slavishly observes a system of norms, thinking as he does so only of himself, but he who has become...
The later-afternoon sky fills with cirrus clouds again. The expected snow has not yet arrived, but my rheumatic joints inform me that it’s only a matter of time. That will mean yet another turn at the snow-thrower, gripping it tightly as it skids on ice, while it hurls fresh snowfall off our driveway....
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