On Monday, September 30, Pope Francis — the first Jesuit pope — sat down in the library of the Apostolic Palace with fellow Jesuit Fr. James Martin for a half-hour private audience. Gerard O’Connell, writing for the Jesuit-run America magazine, says, “It was their third meeting but their first substantial conversation.” Be that as it may, Martin is hardly an…
I recall arguing once with a Catholic friend of mine during our teenage years. He was from a big city far away and attended a publicly funded Catholic high school. I was a homeschooled boy from the country. The debate was on whether there were souls in Hell. I held the ideologically rigid belief that…
In my last piece on this topic a few people pointed out to me a glaring omission. Here I will attempt to remedy this and briefly discuss a few crucial distinctions that we must keep in mind. Suggestion to Sin In the last piece, we discussed sources of scrupulosity in pride. While it is true…
Prayer is man’s richest boon. It is his light, his nourishment, and his very life, for it brings him into communication with God, who is light , nourishment, and life. But of ourselves we know not what we should pray for as we ought; we must needs, therefore, address ourselves to Jesus Christ, and say…
The Spanish language online portal Religión Digital has a new interview this week with Cardinal Walter Kasper, who always seems to show up in the media right before Pope Francis makes another major move in the advancement of his “reform” agenda. This time, he’s talking about the possibility of schism, the German church’s synchronicity with Rome,…
Editor’s note: This article comes to 1P5 from an anonymous Catholic. People generally don’t enjoy being insulted. Being rejected by another person is painful, especially when it is your spiritual father. It is a natural reaction to want to reject the notion that you are the object of a sweeping, generalized insult such as being…
Earlier this month, I wrote a commentary on an alleged conflict between the Vatican and the German Church over their proposed “binding synodal process” on issues “arising from the clerical abuse crisis: clerical celibacy, the Church’s teaching on sexual morality, and a reduction of clerical power.” It was reported by CNA in early September that the…
The matchless and mighty name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ works countless wonders whenever it is invoked with living faith; deep devotion; genuine reverence; and, above all, deepest love. The Great Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ means “God our Savior.” First Point: The Holy Name of Jesus obtains a treasury of graces…
Who could imagine that the faithful Catholic would now be carrying this cross — a cross certainly no heavier than that of our beloved martyrs before us, yet a cross so seemingly unique in all salvation history? There is a de facto schism, a schism that has been going on for years, a schism brought…
“Vivaldi’s violins” — 12 of them, together with one viola, two cellos, and two double basses — left Venice for Cremona, to be studied, preserved, restored, and enhanced. The rare and precious collection is located in Venice’s ancient Ospedale della Pietà (today the Children’s Provincial Institute “Santa Maria della Pietà”), which has been the fulcrum…
Today on Twitter, I saw a diamond in the rough. A fellow Catholic by the name of Jacob Bauer posted the following image, with the caption: “I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwelleth.” As I looked at the image, I found it nearly perfect. By…
