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…
As the Catholic Church nears the much anticipated Synod on the Family (October 5-19) an increasing number of bishops are playing a dangerous game of expectations setting. In a largely unprecedented manner, prelates are utilizing the media to promote their views, seeking to drive a progressive agenda through interviews and pastoral statements. Those bishops who…
The Friday Podcast is available now. You can catch it here. From the show notes: Today Steve talks Summorum Pontificum’s 7 year anniversary. PLUS, The Roman Rumor mill: Cardinal Burke’s alleged “demotion,”; the pope’s alleged irritation over a new book from Ignatius Press on the traditional Catholic understanding of marriage ad family in advance of the…
Last December, news broke that Cardinal Burke had been removed from the Congregation for Bishops. Before the end of the year, I heard from a reliable source that Burke was also expected to be removed from his position with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Though the latter change had not yet…
It’s 3PM on Friday here on the East Coast, which means that if you’re like most of the working world, your brain has already involuntarily checked out. It may already have wandered to a nice glass of whatever you’re having. I won’t bore you with a long post. But I did want to draw your…
It was 4:30AM in New York City and in Washington DC on the morning of September 12, 2001. More than just a new day was dawning, however. It was also the dawning of a new era. Just the day before, on September 11th, the worst terrorist attack in United States history had left 2,977 dead,…
In the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas argues with specificity the maxim that many Catholics have often repeated in the contemplation of evil as a choice: even in committing evil, man always seeks a perceived good. From the Summa: Now a certain order is to be found in those things that are apprehended universally. For that which,…
In response to the statement from the Archdiocese of New York on the dispute over the transfer of Venerable Fulton Sheen’s remains to Peoria for the next stage of the canonization process, the Diocese of Peoria has issued their own “Additional Clarifications” release. It’s in PDF format at the diocesan website, so I’ll reproduce it…
No guest this week. Just me monologuing on Bishop Sheen’s interrupted cause for canonization, the disconcerting NY Archdiocese, Msgr. Pope’s disappearing (and excellent) blog post, and the prophetic vision of the present Church written by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles. You can get it here.
