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Where Peter Is

Texas nuns withdraw request for restraining order

[Updated] Marissa Greene of Fort Worth Report has reported that the Arlington Carmelites have withdrawn their request for a restraining order against Bishop Michael Olson and officials from the group of monasteries to which they belong, the Association of Christ the King: Following the sudden cancellation of an April 30 court hearing between...

A fine apologist makes a welcome return

I actually meant to write this post a week or so ago, but with so many things going on, I’m only posting this now. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m attempting to ease myself out of the apologetics sphere a bit and try to look ahead, in part because there are plenty of good...

The Church is the community of believers

A reflection on the readings for April 28, 2024 — The Fifth Sunday of Easter  In 21st-century American Christianity, there appears to be a strong desire to separate belief in Christ from membership in the Church. This is backed up by strong anecdotal evidence, the proliferation of Christian movements who resist the “church”...

Which Pope said this?

[The use of nuclear energy] has become a reality and had its application in the construction of the “atomic bomb” or “bomb of nuclear energy”: the most terrible weapon that the human mind has, to this date, devised. Im this conjuncture, we cannot refrain from expressing a thought that constantly grieves our soul,...

Thoughts on Time and Dogma

The very notion of the development of Catholic doctrine is of course very much in discussion today and will be for a long while yet, but it seems to me that the concept itself is a bit messier than is typically depicted. To illustrate what the development of doctrine looks like, analogies from...

The case of the Texas nuns: Abuse of legitimate authority?

I have spent much of the past week following the latest developments in the ongoing drama between the embattled Carmelite nuns of Arlington, Texas, and Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth. I also took some time to look back at the beginning of the conflict, seeking a better understanding of what led to...

The shepherd amidst his flock

A reflection on the readings for April 21, 2024 — The Fourth Sunday of Easter (also Good Shepherd Sunday and the 61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations) My wife and I recently traveled out of state for a visit with family organized around celebrating our nephew’s Confirmation. I had been asked to be his...

Texas Nuns respond: Vatican decree “a hostile takeover”

Regarding the ongoing standoff between Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth and the Carmelite nuns in Arlington, Texas, which I reported on yesterday,  it did not take long for the cloistered Carmelite community to respond to the documents from the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DICLSAL). And...

Which Pope said this?

Thank you, women who work! You are present and active in every area of life-social, economic, cultural, artistic and political. In this way you make an indispensable contribution to the growth of a culture which unites reason and feeling, to a model of life ever open to the sense of “mystery”, to the establishment of...