In my tribute to Mother Angelica last month, I asserted that in large part, the network she founded no longer spoke truth to power. I wrote: It is my belief that EWTN’s growth has come at a serious cost: they have traded the credibility that once came with Mother’s tenacity in sharing the “hard sayings” of Catholic…
Unlike other Catholic websites, I have elected to keep our comment boxes open and free thus far. I encourage frank and forthright discussion. I allow opinions that disagree with us and our positions as stated in the articles and posts we publish, provided that those who hold them are respectful in their presentation. I understand that…
Yesterday, we broke the story that Pope Francis had made comments on his plane presser (returning from Greece) indicating with a simple, emphatic affirmative that yes, there were concrete changes to the way the Church is going to deal with the divorced and remarried following the exhortation. Some have (predictably) disputed those claims. There is…
Today on the plane press conference on the way back to Rome from Greece, Pope Francis was asked a very direct question about the exhortation*: Some maintain that nothing has changed with respect to the discipline that governs the access to the Sacraments for the divorced and remarried, and that the law and the pastoral…
Well, Cardinal Kasper certainly seems pleased with the exhortation. It’s almost as though Christmas came early for him: Cardinal Walter Kasper explained that the Pope’s apostolic exhortation “doesn’t change anything of church doctrine or of canon law – but it changes everything”. The retired cardinal has been influential on Francis’ thinking on marriage and those…
In his 1896 Encyclical, Satis Cognitum, Pope Leo XIII warned us of the dangers of accepting error in something otherwise good: The Church, founded on these principles and mindful of her office, has done nothing with greater zeal and endeavour than she has displayed in guarding the integrity of the faith. Hence she regarded as rebels…
Earlier this week, I told you about the pro-gay public tweets of Catholic News Service Director and Editor in Chief Tony Spence. The Lepanto Institute ran a full briefing on him, with screenshots of more than half a dozen offending statements on social media. Statements like: Spence’s resignation didn’t stop him from making clear his…
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.” – G.K. Chesterton The Serpent of Genesis — long identified as The Father of Lies himself, Satan — is unmistakably clever. So much so, in fact, that he is described by the sacred scriptures as “more crafty than any other wild…
There are a number of people who seem to keep missing this key point, the super decoder ring to the entire synod and exhortation process. Gather round, everyone, and I’ll share the secret: To the average person — or the willing priest or bishop — it doesn’t matter that the exhortation didn’t change doctrine. If they’re given permission…
Rorate has a great little three-point commentary on Amoris Laetitia that should be read by every Catholic. I’m going to excerpt most of it because it’s so short, but please visit them for the rest: 1. An apostolic exhortation is not, by its very nature, a non-magisterial document. It is the content of a papal document…
I’ve often found myself wondering about the bias I see at the Catholic News Service(CNS), which seems to gloss over many of the serious problems in the Church. Today, my friend Michael Hichborn at the Lepanto Institute has a story on CNS Director and Editor in Chief Tony Spence that may help shed some light on…
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