It’s really a remarkable thing. This president and this White House, through all the chaos and bluster that seem to constantly surround both, have demonstrated a closeness to the Catholics of this nation that is really unprecedented. From President Trump being the first to make a personal appearance at the March for Life, to the…
There is a classic scene in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life where George Bailey tells his guardian angel, Clarence, “I wish I’d never been born.” That is a statement which some others have likely uttered at some point in 2020. George is at the end of his rope; he has watched friends outpace him…
“Relativism, that terribly effective bleach, has wiped out everything in its path.” –Robert Cardinal Sarah, The Day is Now Far Spent Precis: The foundations of the good political order are grounded upon, and are faithful to, virtues discovered by right reason and practiced by diligent statecraft. Such virtues are betrayed at grave peril; first…
Pope Francis has announced that beginning on March 19, 2021, an entire year will be dedicated to the “Amoris Laetitia Family” (whatever that means): In his Angelus address Dec. 27, the feast of the Holy Family, the pope noted that March 19, 2021, would mark five years since the signing of Amoris laetitia following synods on the family in…
Thank you so much for making 1P5 one of the most-trusted Catholic websites for news and analysis on the Church in 2020! OnePeterFive is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. As such, all US donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. As the final days of 2020 come (at long last!) to a close, we would like…
Image: Massacre of the Innocents, Peter Paul Rubens Memento mori: remember death. The last vestiges of colorful wrapping paper have not yet been whisked away by the garbage men. There is still leftover rib roast in the fridge. We have only just begun the octave of celebration of the Incarnation, the birth of the Christ child,…
From all of us at OnePeterFive, we wish you a Merry, blessed, and grace-filled Christmas and God’s abundant blessings in the new year!
There’s something rarely heard about the commercialization of Christmas. On the one hand, I can forgive the neo-pagan Marxists for the suppression of Christ—they know not what they do. On the other hand, Catholics, who should know better, have in recent decades anesthetized the Incarnation so as to empty it of all physical reality. The…
Truth is the first casualty of war—so goes an old saying. We see it verified again in the so-called “liturgy wars,” where, at least on the progressive side, no lie is too big or too bald, if only it can be repeated often enough to convince most people. If one can add a certain sacrilegious…
EN GREGE RELICTO[1] Considerations on the Nativity scene in Saint Peter’s Square At the center of Saint Peter’s Square, a metallic tensile structure dominates the scene, hastily decorated with a tubular light, underneath which stand, disturbing as totems, a few horrible statues that no one endowed with common sense would dare to identify with the…
There is a great deal of grotesquery in the world and in the Church. The controversy over the Vatican Nativity Scene this year — a kind of “art” I have described as “weaponized ugliness” — has certainly driven the point home. (One might quibble with my use of “grotesque,” which implies something comical; that said,…
