“Clericalism” has been a favorite buzzword of Pope Francis almost since the inception of his pontificate. He wields it like a Swiss army knife, applying it to every problem he doesn’t have a sufficient alternative explanation for. (There’s also not a little …
Category: Featured Commentary
Vatican “Super Dicastery”: A Papal Promise Fulfilled?
When news broke earlier this week about the formation of a new “super dicastery” for evangelization that will supersede the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I expected to see more commentary on it. As an American covering things …
“Barbaric Islamist” Easter Sunday Attacks in Sri Lanka Leave Hundreds Dead
Just after I arrived home yesterday from Easter Mass, and gathered my children for an obligatory Easter photo to send to their grandparents. As I finished texting the photos to my mom and dad, I opened my social media feeds …
Don’t Let Your Left Pope Know What Your Right Pope Is Doing
Last night, I was having a chat with a Catholic friend. We were discussing something I had tweeted a couple of days ago: I still can’t figure out how they haven’t figured out how problematic these optics are. https://t.co/4IEVLCfzDb — …
The Burning of Notre Dame Cathedral: A Tragic Symbol for Our Times
Image via @princess_redd / Twitter Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has been burning for hours. It appears there will not be much left of France’s most iconic Catholic church by tomorrow morning. The blaze, which has already consumed the cathedral’s …
Pope Benedict Breaks His “Silence” to Say Not Very Much at All
Yesterday, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI broke his post-pontificate “silence” yet again in a 6,000-word essay about the crisis of clerical sex abuse in the Church, and his perspective on its origins. The letter was, he says, written in response to …
New Book Sacred Betrayal Highlights Corruption of Cardinal Maradiaga
Martha Alegria Reichman is the widow of the late Alejandro Vallardes, who served as the Honduran ambassador to the Holy See for over two decades. She recently published a book about Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, the leader of the …
More of the Same: Archbishop Wilton Gregory Appointed to DC Archdiocese
As had been widely speculated, Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta was appointed Thursday to succeed Cardinal Donald Wuerl as the archbishop of Washington. The archdiocese has fallen under heavy scrutiny after its two most recent bishops have become emblematic of the …
With Islam, the Vatican’s Dialogue Delusion Continues
Asked by a journalist during the in-flight press conference home from Morocco about the potential consequences of his visit “for the future, for world peace, for coexistence in the dialogue between cultures,” Pope Francis responded: I will say that now …
A Brief Update on the Open Letter on Papal Heresy
There have been a number of developments on the Open Letter accusing the pope of heresy since I first summarized it in this space on April 30. The first of these is that the number of scholars who have signed it …
Read More