Forty years ago the regime of Giovanni Battista Montini, Pope Paul VI, began to reveal itself. Mythology had it that he was a good man who lost control, and that the disaster was caused by everything except his mistakes and pusillanimity. Msgr. F. D. Cohalan, a noted New York churchman and historian, contended there was…
(Editor’s note: this is Part III of a three-part essay. You can read Part I here and Part II here.) Part III According to George Cardinal Pell, the build up to the Second Vatican Council “was an enormously exciting time, a time of great intellectual ferment. We were caught up in this great movement of reform,…
God willed to reveal Himself and to enter into an intimate personal relation with mankind. This revelation and plan of salvation began to unfold through Moses and the prophets, but only in Jesus Christ do we find the fulfillment. He is the Incarnate Word of God, the embodiment of all God wants us to know…
Historically authentic productions of Shakespearean plays are occasionally in and out of fashion. Recently a movement championing “original pronunciation” purports to let us hear Shakespeare’s words precisely as they would have been spoken when the plays were originally written and performed. It is artistically irresponsible to mount a performance of a Shakespearean play —…
Today marks the 50th anniversary of ‘Lumen Gentium‘, the Vatican II constitution on the Church. With this brief post I present its highlights, while encouraging you to read the document in its entirety. The First Vatican Council was preparing to give a definition of the Church but was forced to an abrupt end in 1870…
We Catholics have quite an affinity for recreational alcohol use. Blame it on the wedding at Cana (Jn 2:1-10), the Last Supper (Lk 22:17-20) or the precious blood we celebrate at the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (1 Cor 11:20-29), but we use potent potables as both a Sacrament and a sacramental in our liturgical and…
