The Myth of the Ontological Superiority of the Priest
The priest is not an angel sent from heaven. He is a man, a member of the Church, a Christian. Remaining man and Christian, he begins to speak to you the word of God. This word is not his own....
Tagged: sacraments
The Negri Dubia a Giant Leap for LGBT Catholics
DDF Prefect Cardinal Victor Fernández’s response to Brazilian Bishop José Negri’s dubia on transgender and “homoaffective” people, which can be consulted in Italian or Portuguese here, is a massive step in the right direction for the full integration of LGBT...
Dead Wrong: Kwasniewski on the Ulma Baby
The recent beatification of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma with Seven Children was significant in several ways.Not least among these was the fact that the seventh child was a stillbirth, dead in the moment he was born — indeed, for much...
Validity of Form, Sacramental Grace, and the Specter of Feeneyism
When in 2020 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an instruction that the plural pronoun “we” was not to be used in the baptismal formula because it implies that the baptizand is baptized not by Christ but...
Worried your baptism might be invalid? Don’t be.
On August 6, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a response to two dubia (questions) about clerics performing baptisms with the words “We baptize you” instead of “I baptize you.” According to their response, changing the...
An Easter People, Even without the Sacraments
The other day I was told about one of my former RCIA candidates who was received into the Church a few years ago. He and his wife have a baby, and they had hoped to have their child baptized on...
Exercise the Priesthood This Holy Week
Public health precautions in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic have meant that Catholics around the globe are unable to be physically present at our Holy Week and Easter liturgies. Our dismay is completely justified. A confluence of factors has...
At every time and in every place
Millions of Catholics around the world are now facing the reality that they won’t be able to attend any Holy Week liturgies or receive Communion on Easter Sunday. The Triduum is one of my favorite times of the year. I...
Adding a New Resource: Wednesdays with Pope Francis
Pope Francis’s Wednesday audiences follow “cycles” or “series” in which Francis provides an extended catechesis on a subject, such as the Sacraments, the Family, or the Church. We are compiling these audiences into “courses,” so that while we are all...
An Invisible Communion
The world is currently facing a pandemic that has the potential to kill millions of people and permanently change the way we live. Not surprisingly, many employers, in efforts to promote “social distancing,” are transitioning to largely virtual office settings,...
Popular Posts