We again present Our and your question: what is greater now need the Church? Today we will give a very simple answer, which you, because you are good, because you are faithful, because you are fervent, can understand and accept: the Church needs obedience. Yes, Sons and Daughters, who love the Church: of obedience. And even...
As the Synod on Synodality comes to a close, another claim has been spreading through social media: that the synod has promoted love for demons. Though this claim has gone viral recently, it is not recent. Already in 2022, some sources critical of the pope were already disseminating it (see, for example, here and here). In...
It is clear in reading the Gospels that tensions ran high between Jesus and the scribes, Pharisees, and lawyers. The Gospels recount a number of instances when one or another of them “stood up to test Him.” He in His turn did not mince words in condemning them: “Woe to you, scribes and...
In the latest Debrief, Dominic and I discuss the competing understandings of “tradition” in the Catholic Church today. Beginning with a discussion of Ratzinger’s dynamic understanding, they explore how ideologies undermine the faith and foment schism, as exemplified by Cardinal Raymond Burke’s dissent against the Church’s doctrine on the office of the...
This morning I awoke to several messages from Rome regarding the address given to the Synodal Assembly today by the Australian theologian Fr. Ormond Rush. It took me some time to track it down on YouTube, but I found it (it begins shortly after the 38:25 mark on this video: Fr. Rush’s talk...
In today’s gospel reading, Matthew recounts an attempt by the Pharisees to force Jesus into a no-win situation. They ask him, “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” (Mt 22:17). Their ulterior motive was obvious — to trap Jesus in a no-win situation. If he advocated paying taxes...
A reflection on the scripture readings for Sunday, August 22, 2023 — the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time I want to reflect on a simple quote from St. Augustine of Hippo regarding today’s gospel reading: “We are God’s money. But we are like coins that have wandered away from the treasury. What was...
And how could you boast of the name of Catholic if, separated from the center of Catholicity, that is, precisely from this Holy Apostolic See and from the Supreme Pontiff, in whom God established the origin of unity, you break Catholic unity? The Catholic Church is one, it is not torn or divided;...
Pope Francis welcomed actress and activist Whoopi Goldberg to a private audience recently, and he told her she was “really important.” I used to have a really hard time with news stories like this one. The pre-COVID, self-righteous version of me would have lost it. You can’t get more pro-life than I am,...
Credo: A Compendium of the Catholic Faith by Bishop Athanasius Schneider is promoted by its publisher, Sophia Institute Press, as offering “a clear and readable summary of Catholicism as a whole, given in the pastoral style of the apostles.” The marketing copy claims that the book’s author “shares a bold new articulation of timeless...
Consider the following four propositions regarding eternal salvation: “Outside the Church there is no eternal salvation.” “Those who through no fault of their own do not know the teaching of the Church may attain eternal salvation.” “Baptism is necessary for eternal salvation.” “God offers ways to eternal salvation apart from Baptism.” Are all...
Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation on St. Thérèse of Lisieux, C’est la confiance (“It is confidence”), discusses at length an aspect of Theresian spirituality that is widely known but not widely examined. Thérèse is an enormously appealing saint, with there being no one “type” of Theresian devotee. Readers of midcentury literature might remember the...
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