Recently it emerged that in August 2014, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote a personal reply to questions from Msgr. Nicola Bux about the legitimacy of his resignation from the papacy in February 2013. The late pope’s response leaves no ambiguity about the validity of his resignation. In it, Benedict flatly rejected the “Benevacantist”...
Neither individuals nor nations should regard the possession of more and more goods as the ultimate objective. Every kind of progress is a two-edged sword. It is necessary if man is to grow as a human being; yet it can also enslave him, if he comes to regard it as the supreme good...
Catholic Fundamentalism in America By Mark S. Massa, S.J. Oxford University Press 240 pages, $28.15 In August 2023, during his apostolic journey to Portugal for World Youth Day — the one where he made his appeal to build a Church for “todos, todos, todos” (everyone, everyone, everyone) — Pope Francis met with a...
[Editor’s note: Pope St. Paul VI entered into his eternal reward 47 years ago today, on August 6, 1978. A devoted servant of the Church, this courageous pope brought the Second Vatican Council to its completion and led its implementation, including the massive undertaking of the reform of the liturgy. Pope Paul VI’s...
During an interview with Australian Jesuit Father David Holdcroft, the Economic Inclusion Specialist for the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Rome, he remarked how, “Pope Francis seems to not be popular in America.” This statement came as both a surprise but no surprise to this West Coast-based Catholic because the portrait of the...
What does it really mean to be a “faithful Catholic”? And can that term be misused—sometimes dangerously? In this video, Pedro Gabriel explores a growing and worrying trend: Catholics who proudly wear the title “faithful” while openly rejecting the authority of the Pope, the Magisterium, or key Church teachings. We’ll break down: –...
This is a loud cry of pain from children whose dignity has been wounded. It cannot and must not leave anyone indifferent. -Pope St. John Paul II …yet how indifferent have we become. The utter tragedy of Gazan families has slipped from prominence in the headlines, after leading for but a day or...
The situation which We have just outlined has led to doctrinal dissent. The dissent, in turn, supposedly justified by theological pluralism, often develops into relativism in the area of dogma, so that the integrity of the faith itself is diminished in various ways. But even if things do not go to this extreme,...
[Editor’s Note: In light of the ongoing debates in the Catholic Church (particularly in the United States) over ecclesiology and papal primacy, we are republishing the English text of Pope St. Paul VI’s apostolic exhortation Paterna cum benevolenta, promulgated at the beginning of the 1975 Jubilee year. Sadly, this important exhortation — which...
A new friend, an accomplished writer whom I met for the first time last weekend, gifted me a copy of The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. I couldn’t put it down. While I’ve studied World War II as history, such an integral and personal story, comprehensive enough to include snippets of ordinary...
[Editor’s note: This article by Mark Joseph Williams and Fr. Hans Zollner, SJ, speaks with clarity and honesty about one of the most painful and urgent issues facing the Church: how it listens to, responds to, and accompanies survivors of clergy sexual abuse. Rather than offering abstract theories or institutional talking points, this...
Cursed be anyone who deprives the resident alien, the orphan or the widow of justice!” And all the people shall answer, “Amen!” ~Deuteronomy 27:19 You shall not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When testifying in a lawsuit, you shall not follow the crowd in perverting justice. ~Exodus 23:2 You shall keep away...
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