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Where Peter Is

A time for every thing under the heavens

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...

Navigating growth and development in a living tradition

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...

A Summary Catechism on Extraordinary Phenomena, Part II

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...

Twice blessed: Women in Ministry in the Church

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...

Which Pope said this?

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...

A Summary Catechism on Extraordinary Phenomena

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...

One God, Many Paths? Pope Francis and Interfaith Dialogue

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...

Texas Nuns Update: “Odor of Schism”

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...

The bizarre and dangerous views of a celebrity exorcist

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...