“The Second Vatican Council, in a passage which retains all its relevance today, forcefully condemned a number of crimes and attacks against human life. Thirty years later, taking up the words of the Council and with the same forcefulness I repeat that condemnation in the name of the whole Church, certain that I...
The Church in the West is facing profound challenges as it seeks to evangelize. By most visible metrics—those that rely on data from surveys and professional research on religious practice and belief—the Church is in decline. This decline can be attributed to many factors, especially the Church’s apparent inability to withstand the many...
In the late fourth and early fifth centuries AD, a monk and theologian known to history as Pelagius advanced a novel understanding of the relationship between free will and grace. Pelagius, who hailed from somewhere in the British Isles and whose birth name may have been Morgan, denied the existence of original sin....
This is part two of my discussion with David Lafferty and Nathan Turowsky about the influence of leaders like Archbishop Viganò and Taylor Marshall on ordinary Catholics. In part one, we discussed the influence of the QAnon conspiracy theory on Archbishop Viganò’s recent letter-writing campaign. In part two, we talk about the extremes...
As this millennium approached, John Paul II called upon the whole Church to do an examination of conscience regarding the extent to which it had received and implemented the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (Tertio Millennio Adveniente 36). He said that the Council gave the Church a “truly huge wealth of content” and a...
In this edition of Peter’s Field Hospital, I’m joined by DW Lafferty and Nathan Turowsky. This week, we discuss the origins of some of the more obscure terms used by Archbishop Viganò in his letter to President Trump, and how they reflect contemporary conspiracy theories. DW Lafferty presents his theory about what Viganò...
Step back and admire the efficiency of John Hirschauer’s apologia pro Bill Barr that appeared online at National Review (“Bill Barr Tears the Seamless Garment”) this week. It is not entirely Hirschauer’s fault. Authors do not write headlines or subheads. Still, we do not need to read past the subhead before Hirschauer’s piece...
The COVID-19 pandemic is easing in some areas, increasing elsewhere, and settling into an ongoing reality everywhere. At the same time, the United States is facing a reckoning with our terrible legacy of racism following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. This tsunami of developments has proved to be, for...
In his address to the US Congress in 2015, Pope Francis mentioned the prominent American Trappist monk Thomas Merton, describing him as “a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church.” While we don’t know the full extent of...
“This ‘madness’ of the commandment of love is that which the Lord proposes and defends in our being while keeping away the other commonplace ‘madnesses’ that lie, damage and hinder the fulfillment of the goal of the Nation: that of relativism and that of power as the only ideology. The relativism that, under...
“The solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: a feast so dear to the Christian people. I invite you to discover the riches that are hidden in the Heart of Jesus, to learn to love your neighbor. I address my thoughts to the elderly, young people, the sick and newlyweds. Turn your gaze...
This is the final installment of a 4-part analysis of the book In Sinu Jesu: When Heart Speaks to Heart—The Journal of a Priest at Prayer. The book is credited to an anonymous Benedictine monk but is publicly known to be by Father Mark Daniel Kirby OSB, founder of Silverstream Priory in the...
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