Pedro Gabriel is on a roll! He keeps releasing new books in defense of the Holy Father.
Last week, Pedro received second place from the 2024 Catholic Media Association Awards in the category “History” for his book Heresy Disguised as Tradition. Last year, his book The Orthodoxy of Amoris Laetitia won first prize in the “Pope Francis” category.
Next weekend, he will launch a new book: Rigidity: Faithfulness or Heterodoxy?
In this new book, Pedro tackles the topic of rigidity, which is much-discussed in the Catholic Church today. Often, when Pope Francis criticizes religious rigidity, we hear Catholics say: “Why is Pope Francis always criticizing faithful Catholics?” In this book, Pedro takes a step back to ask, “Is the pope really attacking faithful Catholics?” He explores what Pope Francis actually means when he condemns “rigidity,” which is falsely interpreted by some of his critics as promoting moral and religious laxity?
Pedro Gabriel answers many questions and clarifies Pope Francis’s teachings on rigidity. He explores the context and the other terms that appear frequently the pope’s interventions on the topic. Pedro also seeks to correct the false idea that a to be a faithful Catholic, one must be rigid by comprehensively exploring precedents in Church history where pursuing a rigid course of action caused the faithful to fall into heterodoxy. Finally, Pedro explains how refraining from rigidity does not mean embracing the opposite extreme of laxity.
In the book’s foreword, Rocco Buttiglione writes:
“Pedro Gabriel gives us a wonderful book on an ‘outgoing Church,’ a plea for the education of a Christian personality that is flexible but with a strong backbone, which discovers in the faith not an obstacle to the fullness of human life, but a path not only to eternal life but also to a life one hundred times more human here on earth.”
Please join us for the book launch this Saturday, the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, at 10 am EDT. Pedro will host a Q&A session for anyone interested in learning more about the book and what Pope Francis means by rigidity. You can join by clicking on this link.
Mike Lewis is the founding managing editor of Where Peter Is. He and Jeannie Gaffigan co-host Field Hospital, a U.S. Catholic podcast.
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