Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Thomistic theologian, liturgical scholar, and choral composer, is a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College and The Catholic University of America. He has taught at the International Theological Institute in Austria, the Franciscan University of Steubenville’s Austria Program, and Wyoming Catholic College, which he helped establish in 2006. He writes regularly for Catholic blogs and has authored six books, the most recent being Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness (Angelico, 2017).
Author: pkwasniewski
Living through the Meltdown: An Imaginary Biography
You were born in 1938. You grew up in a parish where multiple Sunday Masses were packed with Catholics. Some of your earliest memories are of the hats and veils the ladies wore as the final touch on their Sunday …
An Anti-Traditionalist Rants—and a Traditionalist Responds
I once received a humdinger of a piece of anti-fan mail from a lady in Europe who was quite incensed by the lecture at Steubenville that became chapter 1 of my book Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness. Recently re-reading it, I …
Sorting Out Difficulties in Liturgical Allegiance
A young adult of strong faith and an admirable family piety sent a letter to me last summer with certain questions and concerns that I believe will resonate with many other readers of OnePeterFive. I will share first the letter, …
The Kingship of Christ and the Anti-Kingdom of Modernity
Right after the Obergefell vs. Hodges decision was announced, the media quickly reported on the “conciliatory” and “moderate” language of Donald Cardinal Wuerl: “The law of the land is the law of the land,” says Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald …
The Reality of Hell and the Fear of God: Banished from a Church Near You
In my article “The Fifty-Year Descent to Footnote 351: Our Progressive Desensitization to the Most Holy Eucharist,” I spoke of how the liturgical reform’s many sudden and drastic changes in ritual and ceremonial have contributed to a continual erosion of …
The Fifty-Year Descent to Footnote 351: Our Progressive Desensitization to the Most Holy Eucharist
We did not wake up one fine day in 2017 to find ourselves suddenly confronted with Eucharistic sacrilege being promoted from on high. There was a long, slow process that led to this moment. It consisted in the gradual dilution …
A Dialogue Between Two Monks Concerning the Papacy
Image: Max Barascudts (1869-1927) — In the Scriptorium Br. Barsanuphius: Good morning, Brother! To my surprise, the guest house is completely ready for today’s arrivals, and we have some time before the next office. Are you free for a conversation? We …
Why Catholics Are So Bad at Evangelizing—And What Has to Change
Image: The miracles of St. Francis Xavier (see full image here), by Peter Paul Rubens Two good friends, fellow parishioners, are having coffee and donuts after High Mass one Sunday. Maximilian: I really enjoyed Father’s homily today. His explanation of the parable …
Between Christ the King and “We Have No King But Caesar”
This month of November begins with the great Solemnity of All Saints. But in the traditional Roman calendar, All Saints is preceded shortly before by an even greater feast—that of Christ the King, the One who creates and sanctifies the …
“Pouring the Argument Into the Soul”: On Taking Care How We Worship
Image credit: Ben Yanke At one point in Plato’s Republic, Thrasymachus, the nihilistic proponent of might-makes-right, asks his interlocutor Socrates: “Am I to take my argument and pour it into your very own soul?” To which query Socrates replies: “God …
