Yesterday, Michael Voris of Church Militant released a very difficult and courageous episode of the Vortex. In it, he alleged that the New York Archdiocese, in apparent retribution for his investigation of the strong homosexual culture within the clergy there, intended to publicly reveal his own past sins. If true, this would amount to an egregious violation of…
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…
This morning was my “big moment”. I woke up at 4:50AM and dragged my tired, exhortation-weary self into the shower to get ready to go on national television for the first time. I was invited to go on Fox & Friends — “the most-watched program on cable television between 6am – 9am ET” — to talk…
Pope Francis has just published his long-awaited Apostolic Exhortation on the Family, Amoris Laetitia. In it, he repeats many of the problematic and controversial statements of the previous 2014 and 2015 Synods of Bishops on the Family. Among these, one finds the law of gradualism with regard to sinful relationships, the claim that there are “seeds”…
It’s here: Amoris Laetitia — the new post-synodal apostolic exhortation on marriage and family. We present it, for now, without comment. Download your copy now (PDF Link). This is the version released to journalists. We’ll update this post with a link to where it lives on the Vatican webpage in the event of any further updates (I noticed…
