How grateful we are to Bishop Athanasius Schneider for his ongoing Catholic witness and defense of the truth. He has put the finger right into the center of the new wound given to the Church by Amoris Laetitia, namely that the Sixth Commandment is now effectively being undermined by stating that there are exceptions to…
His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan, has shared with us the official English text of his reflection, “Amoris Laetitia”: a Need for Clarification in Order to Avoid a General Confusion. He writes: You can use and spread this my official text to whom you want. The exclusive rights of this text I reserve however…
We all have been waiting for it for quite some time now. Finally, a prelate has spoken. On the topic of the apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan, has given a statement of over 6,000 words to the Italian website Corrispondenza Romana, which was published yesterday, 24 April. (No English translation has yet…
Pope Francis’s Amoris Laetitia has elicited a wide variety of reactions. Most Catholic media have accentuated the positive: this document clearly rejects abortion, the idea of calling same-sex couples “married,” and a formal process of offering Holy Communion to married Catholics separated from their spouses and living in adultery unless they commit to be celibate…
I’ve been trying for a long time to fathom what makes me uneasy about the concept and rhetoric of “social justice.” Michael Novak pointed out recently that part of the problem is taking social “justice” not, as the use of traditional vocabulary would suggest, as a true virtue present in individuals, but rather as a…
Last September, in the leadup to the second synod, I found myself overwhelmed. The deluge of bad news washed over me like waves in a tempest, and the feeling of defeat that came with it was, at times, crushing. The game was rigged, the deck was stacked, the fix was in, and everyone knew it — even…
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…
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…
In Sankt Pelagiberg, a little Marian Pilgrimage site near Sankt Gallen in Switzerland — and a little way down the slope of the hill of the Church – there stands a modestly adorned field cross, just at the junction of two hiking paths. Under the shielded Cross of Christ Crucified is a plaque with these…
On Saturday, 9 April, Cardinal Walter Brandmüller explicitly commented on the pope’s Apostolic Exhortation on the Family and warns against a dilution of the Catholic Church’s teaching. The cardinal spoke to the German tabloid newspaper, Die Bild, as reported by the German Bishops’ website, katholisch.de. While many of the statements that are quoted here…
