In the writings of scholastic and early-modern theologians, we can distinguish four main categories of non-Christians able to be saved: catechumens, babies who die before baptism, people who lived before Jesus, and people who have never heard of Jesus. As we will see, in each case, they believed salvation was possible. Catechumens St....
A reflection on the readings for Sunday, January 9, 2022 — The Baptism of the Lord Each week, I pray with the Sunday Scriptures when I begin to prepare my homily. I’m always amazed when the Holy Spirit surprises me by showing me a small detail in the Scriptures that contains a powerful...
“To defend the true tradition of the Church today means to defend the Council (…) We must remain faithful to the today of the Church, not the yesterday or tomorrow. And this today of the Church is the documents of Vatican II, without reservations that amputate them and without arbitrariness that distorts them....
This interview was originally published by the Catholic news website Exaudi. The author has granted permission for republication with slight modifications on Where Peter Is. Interview with writer Austen Ivereigh on Synodality This is Enrique Soros’s interview with Austen Ivereigh, the well-known Catholic journalist, writer, and commentator. He lives in the United Kingdom...
For the second day in a row, I’m sharing an interview I did with a young Catholic YouTuber. Recently I spoke with James Doeffinger, Jr, for a conversation about Where Peter Is, the questions that I have wrestled with throughout my own faith journey, including during Francis’s papacy. James is a convert to...
Back in August, I sat down for an interview with Kassidy Beane of the Hippie Catholic website. It finally went up on YouTube in December, and I’m sharing it here so that readers of this site can watch and listen to our conversation about Where Peter Is, polarization and dissent in the Church,...
A reflection on the Feast of the Epiphany — (Click here for audio) Epiphany is a word meaning ‘manifestation’. It is an event as important as Christmas itself. Jesus incarnate at Christmas and Jesus made manifest to the world at Epiphany are two sides of the same coin. We get much of the...
During today’s General Audience address, Pope Francis spoke about St. Joseph’s role as the legally-recognized father of Jesus. He speaks about how the Gospel writers handled his status—Matthew and Luke refer to him as the “foster father” of Jesus, Luke calls him his “supposed” father. Balancing the theological truth (Jesus is the Son...
Of all the decorations that we put out for Christmas, my favorite are my Nativity scenes. Over the years, I have collected many different portrayals of Christ’s birth – from paper cut-outs to nesting dolls – and each offers a different insight into Jesus’s arrival. While most of our scenes are completed on...
At 3 a.m. yesterday morning, the predicted snow arrived, dropping a beautifully unbroken blanket of fresh white over my yard. This was the first “real” snow in almost two years, last year’s winter feeling almost like what my parents in Southern California experience during these months. As a born-and-raised Midwesterner, freshly fallen snow...
For as long as we Christians have been doing theology, that is, seeking to understand our faith, we have been asking questions about salvation. How are we saved? From what do we need to be saved? Who will be saved? A question of particular controversy in church history has been whether the whole...
On New Year’s Eve, some of the contributors and I put our heads together to try to determine the best pieces we published in 2021. Going all the way back to January, it was astounding to see just how much good, hard, quality work our contributors did, and on such a wide range...
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