A Reflection on Today’s Readings Recently, I was playing a form of Bible roulette. If you have not heard the term before, it is a reference to when someone points to a random verse in the Bible and tries to apply it to their life. Usually, the verse is applied literally since there...
In his famous Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, St. John Henry Newman sought to address a serious concern among the Protestant Christians of his day. Namely, if you look back through the Church’s history, there are places where the Church of one age taught something different from the Church of a...
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt 5:48) During the first year of his papacy, Pope Francis answered a question from journalist Eugenio Scalfari regarding the significance of mystics in the Church: “They have been fundamental. A religion without mystics is a philosophy.” Although Scalfari later become notorious for...
Anyone familiar with the history of the papacy is aware that factions among the curia are not a new phenomenon; hence, the current factions regarding the papacy of Francis should not come as any surprise. The current dispute about his style of leadership seems, in some very conservative quarters at least, to reduce...
About a year and a half ago, I wrote an article on the Samaritan woman of the Gospels in connection with the Holy Father’s 2021 opening of the ordinary ministry of acolyte and lector to women of good character. Taken alongside his establishment of the ministry of catechist as an ordinary ministry open to both men and...
The “seeds of truth” present and active in the various religious traditions are a reflection of the unique Word of God, who enlightens every man coming into world and who became flesh in Christ Jesus. They are together an effect of the Spirit of truth operating outside the visible confines of the Mystical...
When the world is in greatest confusion, visionaries become oracles. Panic, like every other passion, blinds the intelligence of man, and he is glad to take refuge from everything that bewilders him by giving it a ‘supernatural’ interpretation. -Fr. Marie Louis, O.S.C.O. [Thomas Merton] While actual discernment of spirits is itself a work...
By issuing a “nihil obstat,” the Vatican has finally come to a decision on one of the most controversial phenomena in the contemporary Church — the alleged apparitions in Medjugorje. The series of alleged Marian visions that began over four decades ago in the small town, located in what is now Bosnia and...
On September 13, 2024, during his historic apostolic visit to Southeast Asia and Oceania, Pope Francis made headlines with a statement: “All religions are paths to God.” This remark, made during an interreligious meeting in Singapore, quickly sparked controversy, with critics accusing the Holy Father of promoting heresy and religious indifferentism. Did Francis...
The by turns troubling, saddening, and hilarious saga of the Arlington, Texas Carmel—Black Narcissus on the range—has taken a new turn. The Carmelites, after a long canonical and civil legal battle against Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson, have reportedly affiliated with the irregular group the Society of St. Pius X. Bishop Olson has...
Father Chad Ripperger, perhaps the world’s most famous living exorcist following the 2016 death of Father Gabriel Amorth, has been in high demand in certain Catholic circles in recent years. He has made regular appearances on far-right Catholic YouTube shows and podcasts, granting interviews to reactionary public figures including Taylor Marshall and his...
Some in the online community have expressed confusion over the claim made by Pope Francis in Singapore that, among the religions, there are many paths to God. I have seen his statements dissected, debated, defamed, defended, emended, parsed and parodied, lauded and condemned. Yet, after years of study of the writings of the popes and the...
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