As we hear from all of you time and again, the work we do here is more important than ever. Where else can you find the stories we cover and the analysis we provide? Where else do you see news of the crisis interspersed with essays of why we fight and what is beautiful about our faith, in order…
Bishop Stephan Ackermann of the Diocese of Trier, in Germany, has announced that the diocese will be closing almost all of its parishes. From Gloria.tv: Trier diocese, the oldest in Germany, will dissolve its 903 parishes and reduce them to 35, liberal Bishop Stephan Ackermann (54) explained on Friday during an information meeting of the…
On May 17th, Maike Hickson reported a rather shocking revelation from Italian journalist and Vatican expert Marco Tosatti: In the Vatican, unconfirmed reports from good sources have leaked that the Pontiff is on the verge of appointing – or even might have already formed – a secret commission to examine and potentially study changes to…
In the 14 months since the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia was published, countless pixels have been spilled discussing it, dissecting it, breaking it down, and lamenting its clearly heterodox intent. We’ve seen its ambiguous provisions allowing Holy Communion for the divorced and “remarried” implemented in more concrete fashion in the Philippines, in Argentina, in Malta,…
Photo: Entertainment One/IFC Films In a series of articles hitting the Internet over the past week, something surreal is being served up as though it is perfectly normal. A repugnant creature that terrifies and possesses its victims in a 2014 Australian horror movie has, for some reason, been adopted as an “LGBT icon”. The headlines are almost breathless with…
I don’t live anywhere near the beach, but if I did, I think I’d be headed there right now. I’ve spent most of the day looking at the news, trying to pick out the most important stories so I can share them with you. I thought about writing more about Cardinal Paglia, who has been…
Growing up as an American Catholic in the 1980s made Rome feel infinitely far away. John Paul II was not just a pope, but a media celebrity, more akin to a rock star or a president than some approachable religious figure. And perhaps that’s how it always was. Before popes were pop stars, they were royalty,…
In 1862, the French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote that “The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.” The quote was paraphrased –somewhat more famously, perhaps — in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects, as “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Over the course of…
Certain sensationalists have been blowing up social media over the past hour with breathtaking reports of a “Vatican City Bombing” and descriptions of a huge explosion and fire at the Vatican itself. Admittedly, pictures and video coming from Rome depicting billowing black smoke are dramatic: @Emergenza24 @rep_roma @romatoday @ilmessaggeroit @reuters_italia @YouReporter #incendio #Battistini #Roma #Live…
If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. – Sun Tzu, Art of War I keep trying to think of a movie scene to illustrate my point, but I’m grasping at straws. It’s such a common theme – the underdog who manages to keep prevailing despite all odds, the superior foe shaking a clenched…
And why speak I of the world to come? Since here this mystery makes earth become to you a heaven. Open only for once the gates of heaven and look in; nay, rather not of heaven, but of the heaven of heavens; and then you will behold what I have been speaking of. For what…
