On December 18, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) published the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans on the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings. This document is the most recent addition to an ongoing debate within the Catholic Church regarding blessings for same-sex couples. Naturally, as a polemical subject, it generated controversy. A heated...
If you’ve been reading the headlines, whether in the progressive National Catholic Reporter, the extreme-right Lifesite, or nearly any news source in between, chances are you saw articles claiming Pope Francis has permitted priests to “bless same-sex unions” or “bless sinful relationships.” I say nearly any news source, because one outlet got the...
Today the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) published a declaration approved by Pope Francis, Fiducia Supplicans (“On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings”), which delves into the subject of blessings, describing and differentiating formal blessings — such as those we find in rituals and liturgies — with spontaneous or informal blessings. Vatican...
For the past several years, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, which is based in Southern India, has been riven over a liturgical reform. In one of the nastiest and most intractable intra-Catholic disputes in the world, the church’s general synod has given orders that priests have refused to follow, priests and altar parties have...
A reflection on the readings of December 17, 2023 — The Third Sunday of Advent At Mass last Sunday, as we were listening to the second reading, there was the unmistakable sound of a happy child. It took a moment to figure out what was happening, but soon enough we saw a little...
Cardinal Odilo Scherer of the Archdiocese of São Paulo, Brazil, took to social media on Saturday to make a series of posts offering correction to several popular traditionalist claims about the Second Vatican Council and the liturgical reforms. Scherer, who was appointed archbishop of the world’s third-largest diocese and made cardinal by Pope...
From this it follows that those who arbitrarily conjure up and picture to themselves a hidden and invisible Church are in grievous and pernicious error: as also are those who regard the Church as a human institution which claims a certain obedience in discipline and external duties, but which is without the perennial...
As Pope Francis approaches his 87th birthday on Sunday, December 17, an interesting bit of news broke this week regarding his planned place of burial — he told a Spanish reporter in an interview that he plans to be buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. Vatican News reports:...
I was honored this week to join Colleen Dulle of America Magazine on the Inside the Vatican podcast, which is one of my essential listens — the show is billed as a weekly deep dive that goes behind the headlines of the biggest Vatican news stories. With America’s Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell...
Fr. Jamie Dennis of Owensboro, Kentucky has traveled to New York City to celebrate Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church on December 13, the feast day of St. Lucy. St. Lucy’s martyrdom during the reign of Diocletian included the gouging out of her eyes, hence, her assignment as the patron of the visually...
This past June 20th marked my 42nd consecutive year working with homeless and at-risk teenagers and young adults. This is not what I ever thought I would be doing with my life. I was a finance major in college. I finished near the top of my class. I had a job on Madison...
A Reflection on the readings of December 10, 2023 — The Second Sunday of Advent To better understand the message that the Church is giving us on this Second Sunday of Advent, we could think of a father who is praying, when he is suddenly interrupted by his son. His son had been...
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