After yesterday’s 40-minute visit to a Roman hospital for a “check up,” Pope Francis participated this morning in his usual Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter’s square, where he spoke about St. Therese of the Child Jesus and afterwards greeted pilgrims from his wheelchair. But only a few hours later, journalists began reporting...
Last year, I spent two weeks in Rome. During my visit, I met with many interesting people from all around the world, from Church officials to Vatican journalists to clergy and seminarians working and studying in Rome. It was a fascinating experience, especially when speaking with Catholics who weren’t from the United States,...
Catholicism has always considered creation to be the place of God’s saving activity, but the Church’s eschatological vision has often focused on an otherworldly destiny that forgets the importance of this world. This otherworldly escapism still lingers in some Christian descriptions of salvation: the individual human soul is saved for heaven. An example...
A reflection on the readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, June 4, 2023. St. Augustine of Hippo, a great philosopher and theologian, was once preoccupied with the doctrine of the Trinity. He wanted so much to understand the doctrine of one God in three persons and to explain it logically....
When one does not cling to the Word of the Lord to feel secure, but consults horoscopes and fortune tellers, one begins to sink. This means that the faith is not very strong. Today’s Gospel reminds us that faith in the Lord and in his Word does not open a way for us...
This week on The Debrief, Dominic and I discuss four big topics in the Catholic Church this week: 1) The vincible ignorance of Catholic leaders 2) Will Pope Francis approve new SSPX bishops? 3) Carmelite nuns in Texas take on their bishop 4) Tensions and conflicts among Catholics in the Month of June...
“Conscience frequently errs from invincible ignorance without losing its dignity. The same cannot be said for a man who cares but little for truth and goodness, or for a conscience which by degrees grows practically sightless as a result of habitual sin” (Gaudium et Spes 16). Most Catholics on social media, sooner or...
Humility keeps one “within his own limits.[1]” In its religious sense, humility marks one’s complete dependence on God. Though not the chief Christian virtue, humility is paramount in discerning one’s place before God and the rest of the world. It is therefore important not only for the Christian but also for the Church...
Mira il tuo popolo, bella Signora, che pien di giubilo oggi ti onora; anch’io festevole, corro ai tuoi piè. O Santa Vergine, prega per me. I spent about half of May traveling in the Central Mediterranean, the part of the world broadly consisting of Italy and the North African countries, Libya and Tunisia,...
“What is the sound of one hand clapping?” This question is a well-known Buddhist koan. A koan is a question that is meant to jog the hearer’s mind out of logical thinking into enlightenment or simply into awareness. Personally, whenever I hear the question “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” I...
Because today is the day after Pentecost, we celebrate the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, a feast established by Pope Francis in 2018. It is a moveable feast, which means its date is determined each year by the date of Easter. Every year, moveable feasts displace a number...
In March, we announced Pedro Gabriel and Claire Domingues’s new initiative: the Papal Primers Concise Guides. These are summary guides of the Church’s most relevant and recent documents, produced in a printable format. The first booklet was about Amoris Laetitia, the most contested papal document of recent memory. Today, the liturgical feast day of...
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