The Catechism says that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is “the chief sign and symbol” of Christ’s love for “the eternal Father and all human beings without exception” (CCC 478). Along these same lines, Pope Francis makes a radical claim in Fratelli Tutti, “believers come to know that God loves every man and...
The Second Vatican Council—specifically in its Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Apostolicam Actuositatem and in the Apostolic Constitution Lumen Gentium—affirmed that the laity are co-responsible for the mission of the Church. One narrative of the post-conciliar years has revolved around the Church’s acceptance of this teaching—embracing it, fearing it, exploiting it,...
It is when we are most beset that God makes Himself closest to us for the simple reason that we are then most like Him. The Cross shows Him at His most beset, and also yet at His most triumphing. Every June 7th I have a flashback to the most significant event in...
Tonight on The Critical Catholic Mike Lewis and D.W. Lafferty talk with theologian Brett Salkeld about COVID-19 conspiracism—where it’s going and what happens when conspiracy theorists get *some* things right. Starts at 8 p.m. EST.
Today’s readings connect many things: the blood of the sacrifice, the priest, the community, and the covenant. They show how these all come together in Jesus in the Eucharist. The first reading from Exodus depicts Moses acting as a priest on behalf of the Israelites at Sinai. After God has told Moses some...
“Since the Church has received from Christ her Founder the office of safeguarding the sanctity of divine worship, it is certainly incumbent upon her, while leaving intact the substance of the Sacrifice and the sacraments, to prescribe ceremonies, rites, formulae, prayers and chant for the proper regulation of that august public ministry, whose...
Today, the cultural division between the Catholic Church and Western society—especially on moral issues—is as wide as it has been since the rise of Christendom. The dictatorship of relativism that Pope Benedict XVI decried in 2005, which “does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego...
Writer, producer, comedian & Catholic mom Jeannie Gaffigan joins Rachel Amiri, Mike Lewis & Melinda Ribnek to talk about what 2020 revealed about the Church. The panelists discuss how to move forward through the “new normal” to heal divisions and work for a culture of love. Watch right here, on our YouTube channel,...
Check out the fifth episode of The Critical Catholic on Where Peter Is Media, with Mike Lewis and D.W. Lafferty. We stream live every Sunday on YouTube at 8 p.m. EST. In this episode, we start by discussing a troubling message that Mike received after his older sister passed away—one that highlights the...
“Following the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and paying close attention to the special needs of our times, I devoted the encyclical Redemptor Hominis to the truth about man, a truth that is revealed to us in its fullness and depth in Christ. A no less important need in these critical and...
This is part eight 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. Chartres cathedral, sixty miles south from Paris, is...
On May 27, the CBC reported that the bodies of 215 First Nations children had been discovered buried under the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. The school was run by the Catholic religious order the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate until 1969, at which point the Canadian government expropriated it...
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