The negative responses to the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans keep coming, and they’re all over the map. And to be honest, it’s difficult to take some of them seriously. Chris Altieri of Catholic World Report didn’t need a full week to conclude that the document had “failed spectacularly” and that “Pope Francis has put...
Reflection for the readings of December 24, 2023, the Fourth Sunday of Advent. We’ve made our journey these four weeks of Advent with the people who led up to Jesus. King David is imperfect but chosen. The prophets, men and women, told difficult truths and announced the coming of something greater. John the...
“That’s not fair.” “That makes no sense.” “I don’t see why it doesn’t count if you just go once, it’s a Sunday.” “Do we still get to open one gift early like we do every year on Christmas Eve?” These were the responses from my four beloved children when my husband and I...
Here is another proof of [the Church’s] divine life: in spite of a great number of pernicious opinions and great variety of errors (as well as the vast army of rebels) the Church remains immutable and constant, “as the pillar and foundation of truth,” in professing one identical doctrine, in receiving the same...
I think it’s time to begin again with Pope Francis. If this week in the Church has shown anything, it’s that many Catholics simply don’t get Pope Francis. Particularly in the US — although clear cracks have appeared in Germany, Africa, and Eastern Europe as well — there is a disconnect between the...
On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 entered lunar orbit and began circling the moon – the first time in history for humans to visit another world. That evening the crew’s astronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman transmitted a live television broadcast including spectacular pictures of the...
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...
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