Patheos blogger Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry thinks that the focus on mercy in the pontificate of Pope Francis leads naturally to an incredibly important initiative: A Year of Confession. Gobry writes: The Pope is absolutely right: what Christians need right now is an avalanche of mercy (which, as the Pope is well aware, is not the same thing…
The list of things reflective of the gradual but now quickening loss of the Catholic mind is long. Among the things demonstrative that Catholics no longer think like Catholics is the often expressed wish, “I hope I die a quick and painless death.” Death can be scary, for sure, and I resist and avoid pain…
This past Saturday Pope Francis travelled to the parish of Ognissanti (All Saints) in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the first vernacular Mass celebrated there by Pope Paul VI in 1965. Immediately following the Mass, the Holy Father exited the church to address the faithful gathered in the courtyard: “Let us thank the Lord…
It appears a new blasphemy has been revealed. No, I’m not talking about the latest black Mass, a new book by Richard Dawkins, or something Madonna or Katy Perry did on stage. Those sorts of things are just something we’re supposed to put up with in our post-Christian world. This is something different. Something totally unacceptable.…
I recently kicked up some dust about the recent elevation of Gregory of Narek, a tenth-century Armenian monk, to the status of a Doctor of the (entire Catholic) Church. The debate drags on at my own blog, and my own efforts to make sense of this decision are still underway. The finer points of dyotheletic…
It was originally reported that a traditional Latin Mass would be offered for our benefactors yesterday, March 1st, by the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem at their priory in Charles Town, WV. Through an administrative error, we got the dates mixed up. The Mass was actually celebrated at 11:15 AM today, March 2nd. I sent…
It’s been quite a week. I’ve spent a good bit of my time clearing snow and not writing, but a lot of stories of note have hit my inbox. Here’s a roundup of the most significant ones I’ve seen: Five Cardinals Book stolen from participants’ mailboxes at last year’s Synod on Family (Fr. Z) – the importance…
The recent declaration of Gregory of Narek as a Doctor of the Church universal raises important questions about ecclesial unity, ecumenism, papal authority, and the very nature of Christ. As one blogger* described the quandary: The [Armenian Orthodox Church], the body to which Gregory belonged, has formally and persistently rejected the authority of the Council of Chalcedon, was not in…
As 2015 rolls on, we’re plotting the future course of 1P5. To that end, we want to know more about our readers, and what they’d like to see from us. We have a brand spanking-new reader survey that we need your help with. Please take our survey and be entered to win a $25…
What does ISIS mean when they issue repeated threats about conquering Rome? This is not, as some have speculated, a metaphorical term for America. It is not directed at some vague notion of Christianity. It is not about a larger invasion of the West. They mean this: To those who know, who understand the longstanding…
“Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves. Let us pray for one another, that the Lord will carry us and that we will learn to carry one another.” — Pope Benedict XVI at his installation Mass (24 April 2005) “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from the…
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