A famous Argentinian nun has said that Pope Francis told her that several forms of contraception could be permissible to stop those women who want to avoid pregnancy from choosing abortion. It wasn’t long ago that the idea of a pope promoting contraceptive use — an intrinsic evil, condemned infallibly by the Church — would have seemed…
This might well have been one of the most poignant Easters in our lifetime. It was overshadowed by Pope Francis’ purported claim — later half-denied — that Hell does not exist, a claim which caused the public indignation of Catholic author and former presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan: Nor is it only in the realm of…
Isaac Withers is a 21-year-old communications intern for the Bishops Conference of England and Wales. He recently graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in English and Creative Writing. Withers, who grew up Catholic, spent his teen years participating in youth ministry — an activity he says was rooted in adoration and confession. He…
Yesterday afternoon I read an impressive document. It was the testimony of a Canon who was the friend of Arnaud Beltrame, the Lieutenant-Colonel who died after offering himself in exchange for the hostages in the Islamic terrorist attack in Trèbes, France. From what I have read, I believe that the diocese where this French hero…
Today, 24 March, those 300 young people gathered in Rome at the invitation of the Vatican issued their own final document after a week-long discussion. Some 15,000 young people contributed to the discussions through Facebook groups. The participants at the meeting — which was open to people between the ages of 16 and 29 — were…
Image: Screengrab from YouTube Editor’s note: The following is an interview with Archbishop Luigi Negri, formerly of Ferrara, Italy, who resigned from his leadership of that archdiocese shortly after accusations arose that he expressed a desire that Pope Francis die for the good of the Church. Archbishop Negri fiercely disputed the allegations. He is also…
You were born in 1938. You grew up in a parish where multiple Sunday Masses were packed with Catholics. Some of your earliest memories are of the hats and veils the ladies wore as the final touch on their Sunday best, the men’s dapper suits and polished shoes. You learned your catechism in Q&A form—and…
The story about the letter from Pope Benedict to Msgr. Viganò (see here, here, here, and here for our coverage) has, as new deceptions have come to light piecemeal over the past week, grown from something seemingly insignificant into an enormous embarrassment for the Holy See. It has become emblematic of the mess within the Church,…
Today, 17 March, Sandro Magister, the well-informed Vatican specialist, has some more revelations to report with regard to the recent publication of a letter written by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI in response to an invitation to review eleven volumes on the theology of Pope Francis. As it turns out, not only did the Vatican try…
Considering the upcoming 2018 Youth Synod, as well as the 2019 Pan-Amazonian Synod, we may now learn more from two Vatican specialists who predict that the real theme of these synods will be priestly celibacy, and its step-by-step process of attenuation. The two journalists – Edward Pentin and Julius Müller-Meiningen – have quite different backgrounds,…
I once received a humdinger of a piece of anti-fan mail from a lady in Europe who was quite incensed by the lecture at Steubenville that became chapter 1 of my book Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness. Recently re-reading it, I thought it might be interesting to share what she wrote, and then my response to…
