The German Katholikentag is an event organized every two years by the German Catholic lay organization Central Committee of German Catholics (Zentralkomitee der Deutschen Katholiken – ZdK) which has close ties with the German Bishops’ Conference. This year, this event will take place 25-29 May in Leipzig, hosted by the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen, and there will…
Part I | Part II The fundamental problem with Praise & Worship In the first part of this essay, I offered a critique of the profane stylistic traits of Praise & Worship music, whether “soft” or “hard.”[1] Praise & Worship music is not suitable for liturgical use. Its style reinforces a false conception of the…
Many observers were troubled by the news that Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna, Austria, was chosen by Pope Francis to be one of the main speakers at the press conference on 8 April in order to present the Apostolic Exhortation on the Family. He had caused a controversy shortly after the last October 2015…
Is your prayer life stuck in a rut? It’s time to reconsider your habits. Developing healthy prayer habits can make all the difference. Here are some important practices and habits I’ve learned in recent years–I wish someone would have taught me these when I was a boy. But it’s never too late to learn or to develop…
Dear Readers, Today is the last day of our March fundraiser, and we’re still way behind target with only 46% of our $10,000 goal raised. We can’t keep operating at a deficit, so we’re reaching out to you again for help. We just need $5,377 to hit our target to continue our mission to rebuild Catholic culture,…
Minimalism, in its proper context, can be beautiful. We see this in the peaceful feeling of an uncluttered house, a simple graphic design, the clean lines of good architecture, or the stark contrast of a cherry blossom against the white backdrop of a Japanese silkscreen print. But when it comes to Catholicism, there is a danger in…
I have struggled with anger for my entire life. It is what some people might call an “Irish temper” – quick to flare up, burning brightly, but just as quickly extinguished. More often than not, these outbursts leave a trail of hurt (and on my part, guilt) in their wake. In my personal life, my temper has undeniably…
As the smoke clears in Brussels, my mind turns to the Europe that once was. I love that continent in a way that’s hard for me, as an American, to explain. When I studied history, I was always far more drawn to the Catholic drama of the kingdoms that grew up from the ashes of Rome than…
It is the simple truth: God created us for happiness. Not jealous of the good He has (or rather is), God fashioned finite intellectual beings—angels and men—capable of sharing His good through knowledge and love, and thus capable of entering into His eternal joy. We honor and love Him by seeking and welcoming this gift…
Cardinal Walter Kasper — the most infamous member of the German episcopacy — appears to be just tingly with anticipation for the coming apostolic exhortation on marriage and family. Ed Pentin reports (with my emphasis): According to the Italian newspaper Il Terreno, the German theologian told an audience in the Italian city of Lucca on Monday evening that in a “few…
My maternal grandmother had the merriest brown eyes of anyone I’ve ever known, but they’d take on a special light when she recalled one of the poems she’d learned as a young girl. Her favorite, Daffodils, she could recite to her dying day, with such obvious pleasure that her listeners believed she beheld in her…
