After her 2023 disinterment, the late Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, foundress of a Benedictine abbey in Gower, Missouri, began making news, including in august secular venues like the New York Times. Nearly four years after her burial, her body was found not to have suffered the typical decomposition process. Since then, stories have periodically...
You know what they say: Theology – you can’t live with it, you can’t live without it. Quite seriously: There is a problem inherent in theological study. This may not be obvious in prospect, but with even a little experience, the difficulty will likely prove troublesome. I can frame the issue through an analogy:...
Earlier this month, at the site of St. Peter’s martyrdom in Rome, participants in the second session of the synodal assembly joined Pope Francis to pray for Christian unity, offering an ecumenical prayer asking to “remove divisions between Christians so they can proclaim the Gospel together.” The Holy Father presided over this candlelight...
The Vatican announced on Monday that Pope Francis will release his fourth encyclical, Dilexit nos, on Thursday, October 24th. The document’s title is translated as “He loved us” and reflects its focus on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a devotion which Pope Francis holds particularly dear due to its emphasis on mercy. The...
The second session of the Synod on Synodality had fallen into a tranquil lull before an eruption on October 18. NCR has reported about the frustration that boiled over when Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández failed to attend a meeting with delegates concerning study group five. Study group five has been shrouded in mystery...
It has been a little over a month since we published my article on the problematic and heterodox teachings of the Denver-based exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger, “The bizarre and dangerous views of a celebrity exorcist,” and it appears that it has had at least some concrete impact. Perhaps the most significant effect (assuming...
Reflection on the gospel for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time To be alive to God, one has to be dead to the world. This is a basic principle of the spiritual life. The more dead we are to the world, the more alive we are to God. One of the effects of...
In the first three centuries, the Church did not feel the need to give an explicit formulation of her faith in the Holy Spirit. For example, in the Church’s most ancient Creed, the so-called Symbol of the Apostles, after proclaiming: “I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and...
Radical materialism and arrant superstition alike are common enough in this world – so much so, in fact, that they may often be found side by side in the selfsame person. Yet some who consider themselves orthodox believers seem to carry within themselves a kind of hidden or closet materialism that fosters superstition...
At a Synod press conference held on October 14, the speakers emphasized the need for greater involvement of laypeople, including women, in the Church’s decision-making processes. Dr. Paolo Ruffini, President of the Commission for Information of the Synodal Assembly, reported that over 90 speeches in the last three general congregations highlighted the theme...
Dominican friends of mine in England and Ireland were predictably delighted a few weeks back by the news that Fr. Timothy Radcliffe OP was to be appointed a cardinal. Equally predictable, unfortunately, has been the performative indignation and aspersion-casting of those less than happy with the appointment, recycling criticisms that were unfair a...
Story-telling is a thing right now, but it wasn’t when I sent a one-minute pitch to The Moth in 2013. I had been listening to the Moth on public radio stations for years: “True stories, told live, no notes.” And at the end of each Moth episode the host says, “If you have...
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