The ongoing debates about the authentic Catholic position on the death penalty have grown particularly exasperating. Perhaps the worst thing of all is that we’re wasting time arguing over teaching that is incredibly well-established throughout the majority of Church history. The Church’s stance on capital punishment has always been more than merely permissive; the idea that “rendering harmless”…
Earlier this week, CNA reported that a video called “OwningOurFaith: LGBT Catholics” would be screened by the pope in a private audience yesterday morning. A Vatican official says there will be no papal endorsement for an LGBT activist video whose backers want it to reach Pope Francis. Father Gil Martinez, C.S.P., a member of the development team…
View image | gettyimages.com In the 1800s, holding the episcopal see of New York didn’t have quite the prestige it does today. There was no guaranteed cardinal’s hat. In fact, New York wasn’t even elevated to the status of Archdiocese until 1850. But the man who ruled the New York Catholic Church in New…
Rorate Caeli has the scoop on what is, if you think about it, a not-entirely-surprising story: It was only a matter of time. Ever since Bishop Richard Williamson eventually caused the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX) to force his own expulsion from that Society in 2012, the watch has been on for him to…
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…
