On Twitter, I follow the hashtag #Amorislaetitia, which allows me to see all the self-categorized tweets on this topic. While this has proven not entirely useful since the exhortation was released 11 days ago, today was different. Today, I saw a series of tweets from Matthew Schmitz, the literary editor of First Things. I am unfamiliar with…
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…
After a few earlier words of Bishop Bernard Fellay on 10 April on the Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetita (where he speaks of a boat with a hole below the waterline, which is now prone to sink), the SSPX has now published a more formal statement and published it on its own website (in French). Father Mathias Gaudron, of…
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…
In September of 2014, on the eve of the first Synod on the Family, Steve interviewed Dr. Michael Sirilla, professor of systematic theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, on the limits and boundaries of papal infallibility, the assent owed by the faithful to varying levels of magisterial documents, and how the average Catholic may…
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…
On 12 April, the influential German Cardinal Karl Lehmann wrote an official statement and praised the new Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. Lehmann is the former President of the German Bishops’ Conference and was a member of the so-called “Sankt Gallen Group” which is known to have been a supporter of Jorge Bergoglio back at the 2005…
It is our pleasure to present the commentaries of some reflective people in Europe and in the U.S. who are knowledgeable experts when it comes to the Vatican and the Catholic Faith. Each was asked to write a brief commentary to the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, and they have generously responded. We are very honored…
“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…
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…
