Two hundred years ago, “by the tidings, in amaze / the earth is held, and with her gaze / the parting hour doth mutely scan / of this great spirit,” as we read in Alessandro Manzoni’s The Fifth of May. In fact, on May 5, 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in Saint Helena, a British island…
Author’s note: I originally published this essay on Dec 17, 2015, the day before the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It was a time of anticipation and excitement for Star Wars fans, but although The Force Awakens recaptured much of the magic of the original trilogy, the next two films wound up being as…
A priest friend on social media sent me a fascinating article at a new Substack called The Upheaval. What is “The Upheaval,” you ask? Well, it’s something you see happening all around you, and it’s unnerving to say the least: We are living through an era of epochal change. At few times in history have…
Vatican executives, including Cardinals who are heads of dicasteries and administrators, will be required to sign a declaration stating that they have no convictions or investigations against them for terrorism, money laundering, or tax evasion. Furthermore, they may not hold assets in tax havens or invest in companies that operate contrary to the doctrine of…
Earlier this week, my friend Joseph Sciambra asked me to be on his podcast. The topic was anger – something I know way too much about. I think it was an interesting and necessary conversation. In the event that it might be of some value to you, I thought I’d share it here:
I recently sent an email to our mailing list, and in it, I asked for some feedback from our readers on the current state, direction, and value of 1P5. There were many responses, a lot of them helpful. But one in particular stood out. It was from a guy I’ll call Chris – not his…
Half a millennium ago, on April 27, 1521, the Portuguese explorer who made the first tour of the world in human history was killed in the Philippines during an unexpected skirmish on the small island of Mactan: Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães, in Portoguese; Fernando de Magallanes, in Spanish). Born to a noble family in…
For all his interest in the liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI made not a single change to the Calendarium Romanum of the ordinary form of the Roman Rite. Even after declaring John of Avila and Hildegard of Bingen to be doctors of the Church, he did not inscribe their names in the calendar. Pope Francis has…
Earlier this week, Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register reported that the Church is facing pressure on multiple fronts to change her teaching that homosexuality is “intrinsically disordered”: Pressure continues to be exerted on Church leaders to remove the language of Catholic teaching that states that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “under no…
Catholic with a small c, my catechism taught me, means universal. Our Faith’s long history, unique claim to the Truth, and geographic spread make it an ideal and never-ending source of visual projects. Daniel M. Koenemann’s cheering article on the global spread of Latin Masses is one of the latest Catholic map-based projects on the…
My earlier essay at OnePeterFive, “What Is the Catholic Intellectual Tradition?,” attempted to answer this ambitious question by pointing to stable, recognizable characteristics. In presenting an answer, I also grappled with skepticism toward the value of any tradition and the postmodern attack on truth claims. Here, I would like to offer two more objections with…
