A reflection on the Mass readings for Sunday, July 26, 2020. One of the dialogue lessons in my Spanish learning app is the story of a girl who, while looking around in the attic, accidentally discovers an antique lamp. As she cleans it, a genie suddenly appears. The genie gave the girl three...
“The Marxist solution has failed, but the realities of marginalization and exploitation remain in the world, especially the Third World, as does the reality of human alienation, especially in the more advanced countries. Against these phenomena the Church strongly raises her voice. Vast multitudes are still living in conditions of great material and...
It was perhaps foolish for my wife and me to attempt effective social-distancing with three children under six on a summer evening in a neighbor’s backyard. So we contracted COVID-19 on the Fourth of July. Our symptoms were relatively mild, and for a few weeks we lived off groceries that our friends left...
This is a positive development. As the polarization in the Church has begun to increase, fueled by a flurry of increasingly paranoid and bizarre open letters from former U.S. papal nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, some Church leaders are beginning to speak out as the problem of vocal reactionary dissent from the radical...
“What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he repented and went. And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir,’...
As the struggle for racial justice in American society expanded to include calls for the removal of statues honoring historical figures who perpetuated institutional racism (including slaveowners and Confederate soldiers,) statues of other figures have also been called into question. Some of these include two canonized saints, like Junípero Serra (a Franciscan who...
In this new episode of Apostles’ Field Guide, Monica Pope and I finish up our discussion of the USCCB’s pastoral letter against racism, “Open Wide Our Hearts.” As we walked through the eight action points that the bishops’ propose in the final section of the document, we ended up talking about the role...
In my June 7 post, “The Redpilled Pope of the Qatholic Church?”, I reported on what I described as “the inevitable public merging of Viganoite Catholicism with the MAGA movement.” Archbishop Viganò’s June 6 letter to Trump, which uses language echoing that of the followers of the conspiracy theory and MAGA pseudo-religion known...
“Do not allow yourselves to be deceived by the cunning statements of those who persistently claim to wish to be with the Church, to love the Church, to fight so that people do not leave Her…But judge them by their works. If they despise the shepherds of the Church and even the Pope,...
Tomorrow, July 18, 2020, marks the 150th Anniversary of the promulgation of the 1870 document Pastor Aeternus, the First Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ. This document formally spelled out the Church’s teaching on the nature of the papacy and papal primacy. It is perhaps best known for the solemn...
Last summer, I took it upon myself to watch as many great films as I could, based on several “best movies” lists. No matter the decade or the genre, I wanted to immerse myself in the most celebrated movies of all time during my summer vacation (I’m a teacher) to expand my knowledge...
In Part 3 of our conversation with Mexican Catholic scholar Rodrigo Guerra, we discuss the need to strengthen the relationship—to build “communio“—between the Latin American and North American Churches under the patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Next, we discuss the possibility of a traditionalist schism in the Church, fueled by figures such...
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