Last week a controversy erupted about the way the Blessed Sacrament was stored during the Saturday night preceding Sunday’s papal mass at World Youth Day (WYD) Lisbon. Pictures circulating on social media showed plastic containers on top of tables inside...
“They were men of genius, but they had no perception of what is just and lawful in music; raging like Bacchanals and possessed with inordinate delights-mingling lamentations with hymns, and paeans with dithyrambs; imitating the sounds of the flute on...
“May Christ plant a kiss on me.” — St. Ambrose. Every Romeo wants to kiss his Juliet. If she is a little shy, he may try to cajole or trick her with sweet and gentle words. Shakespeare’s tragic Romeo tells...
As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the election of Jorge Bergoglio to the Holy See of Rome, I’d like to look back on some of the major contributions of his pontificate to date. I’ve identified seven: dialogue and synodality,...
Today at noon in Rome, the Vatican Press Office published a rescript confirming that dispensations from the July 16, 2021, motu proprio Traditionis Custodes are reserved to the Apostolic See. The document, published in Italian and signed by Cardinal Arthur...
Given the divisions and confusion present in Catholicism today, it boggles the mind that a well-known priest would deem it prudent to make a public argument pushing for a dramatic overhaul of the Catholic lexicon surrounding the Eucharist. And yet...
At the beginning of this month, we celebrated the Solemnity of Epiphany. During the Mass, after the Gospel, there has long been the custom of the solemn presentation of the Epiphany Proclamation. This dates back many centuries to the days...
[Author’s note: Conservative Catholics sometimes argue that Pope Francis puts too much emphasis on the social dimension of Catholic teaching; they worry that such an emphasis on the communal will distort the Church’s moral teachings. In reality, however, the Church...
I thought I’d close out the week with a little linkaround, sharing some liturgical thoughts and reading that you might find interesting. First off, on November 23, the fifth and final installment in the series by theologians John Cavadini, Mary...
One of the difficulties in responding to critics of the Vatican II liturgy is that they are attempting to resurrect a debate that was effectively finished in the 1960s and 1970s. This was long before the internet made it possible...
Much has been made in recent weeks of actor Shia LaBeouf’s reported conversion to Roman Catholicism. To label Mr. LeBeouf, who was reared in a household he has characterized as “hippie Jewish,” a true convert to the ways of the...
A reader alerted me to this review of the Mass of the Ages films produced by the Conventual Sisters of St Dominic in Australia. It’s available in two formats: a 23-minute audio podcast (below) and a 15-minute “visual” format (above)....
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