As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the opening of the first session of the Second Vatican Council, here is a snapshot of the world before, during and after the Council. One cannot understand Vatican II without understanding the Church...
Recently, Mike Lewis indulged a request I made to him by writing an article on Pope Francis’s use of the word “indietrism” (or “backwardsism,” as Mike translated it). He did some excellent research, with interviews of various authors who have...
A reflection on the scripture readings for July 24, 2022, the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Old Testament is not light on stories of divine punishment and destruction. One of the necessary tasks to have a mature, integrated Biblical...
In my experience, many traditionalists[1] perceive the “New Mass” as empty and bland compared to the richness of the Tridentine liturgy. From their perspective, the new liturgy needs artificial distractions, from ad-libbing to clowns, to maintain people’s interest. The inherent...
On the Moral Significance of The Moral Significance of Modern Food A recent article in First Things likely garnered little attention, but I think—if you’ll bear with me—we should pay some attention to it. The article by John Kainer is...
One of my earliest memories involves kneeling next to my Filipino mother at her home altar. Her altar has two Virgin Mary statues, one of sterling silver and the other of porcelain, and a Santo Nino. Santo Nino is clothed...
As the Savior of humanity, Jesus Christ had a record of embracing those disparaged by members of his Jewish culture. It was common for him to dialogue with tax collectors, gentiles, women, sinners, and prostitutes conveying to them that they...
Realities are greater than ideas. Pope Francis keeps saying these words, and I think his understanding of this is something that sets him apart from his immediate predecessors. Don’t get me wrong—I love Popes Benedict and St. John Paul II....
It has become common in certain Catholic circles to label Pope Francis (and the post-Conciliar Church) as “modernist.” This term is applied to stand in opposition to “tradition,” a fundamental Catholic value. After all, Tradition (with capital “T”) is one...
Critics of Pope Francis often accuse him of disrespecting the traditions of the Church and rejecting the core values that make the Church what it is. Sometimes, they view Pope Francis’s openness to other cultures as proof that he wants...
To attempt to preserve a culture is the surest way to kill it. Like a flower that is pruned so it can be put on display, cultures begin to die when they are removed from their roots. The Catholic culture...
A culture can grow barren when it “becomes inward-looking, and tries to perpetuate obsolete ways of living by rejecting any exchange or debate with regard to the truth about man.” — Pope Francis Querida Amazonia 37 (quoting St. John Paul...
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