You may be aware that a mid-synod report — referred to as a “Relatio post disceptationem” — was released today. Voice of the Family (VoF), self-described as “an international coalition of pro-family groups”, is having none of it. John Smeaton, co-founder of Voice of the Family, threw an uppercut right out of the gate: Those who…
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If a Friday podcast doesn’t get posted until Sunday, is it still a Friday podcast? We don’t usually post on Sunday, but a series of unfortunate events (that’s fair use, right?) caused a delay in…
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke continues to shine as a beacon of hope for the faithful during these days of trepidation. As the Extraordinary Synod on the Family continues, Catholics are hearing a steady drumbeat of self-styled reformers calling for “pastoral solutions”, “less offensive language” and the revisiting of “alleged interpretations of dogma” in an effort…
Caritas Internationalis is the largest social justice organization in the Catholic Church. It serves as a confederation of Catholic social justice and charitable organizations around the world. According to the history presented on the Caritas website: The Church describes Caritas as its official voice “in relation to its teachings in the area of charity work” To…
Back in 1998 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and its prefect at the time Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, released the document “Concerning Some Objections to the Church’s Teaching on the Reception of Holy Communion by Divorced and Remarried Members of the Faithful”. While it was written over sixteen years ago, Cardinal Ratzinger was…
Have you ever wondered how much of Jesus’s public ministry is not reflected in the Gospels? We already know that a good deal of His earthly life was not recorded. But even the sections on his active ministry seem, as far as the narrative is concerned, somewhat truncated. It’s a very short synopsis of three very active…
Damian Thompson has an excellent post over at the online edition of The Spectator regarding the controversy that has preceded the Synod on the Family (“Communion for divorced: Pope Francis has created a crisis”). To his credit, Mr. Thompson goes beyond the internecine warfare which has garnered most of the headlines in the months leading…
It’s officially October, which means a yard full of leaves, pumpkin spice everything, and the Synod on Marriage and Family starts on Sunday in Rome and runs through October 19th. There are already some doctrinal clashes going in, so please add the proceedings to your prayer intentions. In case you’re not subscribed, the latest episode…
The quirky “Bad Catholic” writer Marc Barnes — who has left Patheos Catholic and is once again blogging from his own digs — has a pretty amusing takedown of the weird-looking lions that show up in paintings of St. Jerome. He writes: According to the legend, Jerome was hanging with his religious brothers when a lion limped towards them.…
I have a special affinity for St. Michael the Archangel. As a young man, I found his commission to battle the forces of evil so appealing that I chose him as my confirmation saint. I have always taken recourse to the St. Michael prayer in times of difficulty and spiritual combat, and for those reasons,…
Many Catholics have heard stories about a group called the “SSPX” (The Priestly Society of St. Pius X) without ever really knowing much about their story, the context of their situation, or the complexities and nuances involved. They have become almost a Catholic version of the bogeyman, their name used as a short-hand description of any schismatic…
