Earlier this week, papal biographer and Crux contributing editor Austen Ivereigh fired off a bravado-laden tweet about Amoris Laetitia (AL) and the corresponding dubia: Naturally, the pope won’t answer the so-called dubia; they seek to overthrow the fruit of the …
Category: Theology
The Greatest Trick the Jesuits Ever Pulled…
In 1862, the French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote that “The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.” The quote was paraphrased –somewhat more famously, perhaps — in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects, as “The greatest …
Catholic: What It Means, Past, Present, Future
What does “Catholic” really mean? In order to answer that question, to the benefit of Catholic and non-Catholic alike, I’d like to examine the core distinguishing elements of catholicity. I hope to reveal the inner logic of the word, which …
Trump to Little Sisters of the Poor: “Your Long Ordeal is Over” But is it?
It has arguably been the most high-profile Catholic news item in the United States for years. The Little Sisters of the Poor became the poster children in the fight over over religious freedom in America during the Obama administration and …
Christ’s Atonement: More Than Just Payment for Sin
One sunny autumn day, as I was taking a walk throughout my neighborhood, I spotted a man whom I had never met before, and who I knew did not live in the neighborhood. After briefly talking, he reached into his …
A Dubious Influence: De Lubac & Von Balthasar’s Effect on Catholic Thought
(Image: From left to right, Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar) Editor’s note: The author of this essay is, according to his own words, “not a certified academic, let alone theologian. These thoughts are simply the opinion of …
What Pope Francis Can Learn from Pope Benedict about Humility
Which pope, long before being raised to the papal office, criticized “the all-too-predetermined dogmatic reading” [1] of the Bible, and later, having exercised that office, continued promoting this belief “that theology obviously has its own freedom and task, that it cannot …
The Life of St. Thomas Aquinas and His Greatest Work
The Church has told us countless times to go to St. Thomas for guidance in matters of philosophy and theology. Over the centuries this authoritative counsel has been a source of motivation for countless schools and seminaries, teachers and scholars. …
Conscience – the “Aboriginal Vicar of Christ”
In light of the controversies surrounding chapter eight of Pope Francis apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the role of conscience has taken center stage. The questions for us are: what is conscience and how is it formed? Is it informed only …
Pope Francis: Christ “Made Himself the Devil”
As a result of H. Reed Armstrong’s recent article on the influence of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac on the thinking of the contemporary Church, I found myself perusing an analysis of von Balthasar’s “Delirious Hope that …
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