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Where Peter Is

Cardinal Burke’s Contradictory and Tenuous Position

Douthat: Isn’t that a deep contradiction of how Catholics think about the office of the papacy? Burke: Of course. Exactly. It’s a total contradiction. And I pray that this wouldn’t happen. And to be honest with you, I don’t know how to address such a situation. As far as I can see, there’s...

What have we become?

In his New Year’s Day homily, Pope Francis denounced violence against women as a “blasphemy against God, who was born of a woman.” CNN immediately tried to capitalize on this for sensationalistic purposes, by tying his speech to the incident the previous day, when he slapped the hand of a woman who yanked...

“Which Pope said this?”

“Good news. A single word – Gospel – that, even as it is spoken, becomes truth, brimming with joy and mercy. We should never attempt to separate these three graces of the Gospel: its truth, which is non-negotiable; its mercy, which is unconditional and offered to all sinners; and its joy, which is...

The infallibly erring Pope

“Even a stopped clock is right twice a day” — Popular proverb, unknown author One of the criticisms against our website we most often hear is: “you think that everything the Pope does or says is infallible.” Not so. We know full well that a Pope is only infallible when he makes an...

Evangelization in an Election Year

It is now officially 2020. Political junkies rejoice!  For the rest of us, the heightened level of negativity and emotion that elections bring typically means many of us won’t be too eager to engage with others on anything that can become an opportunity for debate. For Catholics, the notion that this election year...

On yanking and slapping hands

Today is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God: one of the holy days of obligation of the Christmas Octave and the first day of the New Year of 2020! So what better way for a Catholic to celebrate and cheer, than to badmouth the Pope? Yes, unfortunately, yesterday...

Onward to 2020!

Happy New Year! (Or New Year’s Eve, depending on when you’re reading this.) 2019 was a big year for Where Peter Is. We started this site in early 2018 as a handful of Catholics who had never met each other in person, spread around the world, connected by our shared Catholic Faith and...

Care for Creation: The Synod of Bishops on Ecology

The final document of October’s synod of bishops on the Amazon has finally received an official English translation (here). Among its themes and proposals stands out its emphasis on caring for creation (ecology). News coverage of the synod was dominated by the side-show of “Pachamama” (which WPI covered more thoroughly than any other...

A New Year’s Resolution for Catholics: Be Critical

2019 was a turbulent year in the Church, but amid all the controversy, much was revealed. Some prominent critics of the pope, spurred on by the example of the now-discredited Archbishop Viganò, expressed themselves with rare frankness, allowing us to further discern the contours of the anti-Francis resistance, the depths of which we...

Which Pope said this?

“Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (v. 24). With these words, Jesus makes it clear that it is not a matter of numbers, there is no “limited number” in Paradise! Rather, it is a case of taking the...

By A. Davey from Where I Live Now: Pacific Northwest - The Virgin MaryUploaded by Elitre, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21919698

Pope Francis and Mary Co-Redemptrix

Pope Francis’ homily for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12 has been the source of some discussion and controversy. One article carried the headline: “Pope calls idea of declaring Mary co-redemptrix ‘foolishness’.” Another said: “Francis: Mary is not co-redemptrix, new dogmas are not useful.” Still another headline read: “Pope:...

Hijacking Legitimate Authority

As I continue to work my way through the dreary Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin, I notice a good deal of what I call hijacking legitimate authority. By this I mean that he claimed his interpretation of Scripture was the true meaning of Scripture. Then, when the Church rejected his interpretation, he claimed that the...