Even a year ago, I was completely blind to the spiritual danger of the rising transgender movement. I conceptualized transgenderism as a treatable societal malignancy, which would not cause widespread problems if it could somehow be contained within the confines …
Make This a Black Friday the Bishops Won’t Forget
Thanksgiving is now past, and while leftovers are being refrigerated and families are saying their goodbyes, much despair is held by lay faithful. We are still reeling following the less than fruitful meeting of the USCCB in Baltimore a little …
In Defense of the Jesuit Order (Sort Of)
Editor’s note: The following is not the position of 1P5, but we submit the author’s opinion to help inform discussion on the question of the always troublesome (these days) Jesuits. As we lament their present state, it is worthwhile to …
Words of Consolation: Chesterton, Tolkien, and the Crisis in the Church
Like many Catholics who love their faith, I have struggled to find an explanation for the current crisis in the Church. Despite countless hours of research and analysis, I still find the situation deeply mysterious. It seems that the impossible …
Napoleon, the Postmodern Crisis, and the Novus Ordo
As Pope Pius VI lay dying in Valence, France in 1799, a prisoner of the rising Napoleon, Talleyrand thought the First Consul had in his custody the last of the popes. Like the Holy Roman Empire, the anachronistic institution of …
New Church, New Faith, New Pope
In 2013 Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor told Paul Vallely of The Independent, “Four years of Bergoglio would be enough to change things.” In a story published in March 2017, LifeSiteNews quoted from a speech given by former cardinal Theodore McCarrick that …
On Deposing Popes: A Historical Review
This article is also available as a printer-friendly PDF document. Asking the Question Throughout his five-year reign, Pope Francis has been a controversial figure. He has pushed for novelties and innovations to both the papacy and the Church itself, from …
Viganò’s Verities Hang like a Black Cloud over the Vatican
In the Gospel of St. John, from the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, (the date of Archbishop Carlo Viganò’s second attestation), Jesus observes, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” One can’t help …
On the Pope and Abuse, Who Are the Real ‘Falsifiers of the Word’?
“Pope Francis will meet with all of the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences at the Vatican next February 21-24, ‘to speak about the prevention of the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.’” So reported Vatican News, using the words of …
What Not to Blame Clerical Sex Abuse On
When wrongdoing becomes widespread to the point of seeming endemic – as has the horrid evil of clerical sex abuse – blaming the individual culprits isn’t enough. We also desire to know who allowed the wrongdoing to spread, who failed …
