If you are a typical observant Catholic who has struggled with this papacy, dealt with distress caused by his words and actions, and generally struggled with dislike for the pontifex, it’s OK. Well, all right, it’s not: honestly, it is …
Category: The Papacy
Good Parents Say “No”: Pope Francis on Lutherans and the Eucharist
“Ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation and separated from the Catholic Church, “have not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Holy Orders.” It is for this reason …
Ominous Galumphing
Since early October, Catholics have peeked through the looking glass to see if the Jabberwock of doctrinal plasticity could be slain. It is a destabilizing place to be. Never in their lifetime have most Catholics been here before. We watched, …
Fool Me Twice: Francis, Scalfari, and Our Response to Papal Media
No sooner was the latest bombshell report from Eugenio Scalfari on the musings of Pope Francis translated into English than we had our first noisy headline informing us of a Vatican “denial” of the same. In this latest iteration of the …
No, The “Conservatives” Did Not “Win”
We were terrified beyond all else by the disastrous state of human society today. For who can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deeprooted malady …
How To Win Friends and Influence The People—or, Nothing Personal, But You’re The Pope
Munkácsy Mihály: “Ecce Homo!” (1896) “[W]hen asked how he would like to be remembered, Francis simply responded: ‘As a good guy. … I hope they say: “He was a good guy who tried to do good.” I have no other …
The Enigma of Pope Paul VI
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 …
A Difficult Feat (at the Roman Circus)
Hilary White —artist, journalist, and keeper of the weblog, Orwell’s Picnic emailed from Norcia to ask if I would contribute thoughts on the Synod to her new project on that topic. I really was not sure I had any thoughts. But her …