This week, we saw two astonishing failures in ecclesiastical leadership as regards the clerical sex abuse crisis. First was the Vatican’s direct intervention in the U.S. Bishops’ fall meeting, stopping them from holding a vote on accountability measures. We heard about “shock” and “surprise” and “anger” from the bishops after the interference from Rome. But…
All Catholics will sooner or later be asked a question like this: “So, what do you think of the charismatic movement?” It may come from a Catholic heavily involved in the “renewal”; it may come from a hardened skeptic; it may arise out of a simple desire to understand a fairly widespread phenomenon that appears…
Today at Catholic Culture, Phil Lawler brings to light something most of us missed in the proceedings during the US Bishops’ (USCCB) annual fall meeting. Francesco Cesareo, the chairman of the USCCB’s National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, said yesterday that some bishops must resign “to restore trust and allow the deep wounds…
Last Sunday, as the Bishops of the United States began to make their way to Baltimore, those blessed with the opportunity to attend the Tridentine Mass heard Matthew 13:24-30 read as the Gospel. The following is a synopsis of this parable as I heard it explained by a diocesan priest who wishes to remain anonymous:…
A reader writes: Hi there-I just found your site a couple weeks ago. I am a traditional catholic that would like to do more research on our faith and why we believe what we believe. I grew up going to the Tridentine Latin Mass and my wife was brought up in the Novus Ordo mass.…
Yesterday, during the opening session of the US Bishops’ fall annual meeting, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the American bishops’ conference, announced that the Holy See had intervened to stop the bishops from voting on two measures designed to tackle the Church’s ongoing sex abuse crisis. The Vatican has inexplicably ordered the bishops to wait on…
Editor’s note: The following is not the position of 1P5, but we submit the author’s opinion to help inform discussion on the question of the always troublesome (these days) Jesuits. As we lament their present state, it is worthwhile to consider their illustrious past. Merely saying the word “Jesuit” will likely cause a frown in…
In a wonderful article from years ago that I only recently discovered, “The Mass and the Four Most Important Lessons of Childhood,” Michael P. Foley argues that the four basic responses that parents teach their children from an early age map onto the four basic purposes of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Implicit, then,…
Last week, the display cases at my Catholic high school, which house the most recent creations of the art students, caught my attention. They contained dioramas commemorating family members and close friends who were clearly deceased. I assumed, it being the week of All Souls’ Day, that this was a project coinciding with that feast.…
The auxiliary bishop of Astana, formerly bishop of Karaganda [Kazakhstan], Athanasius Schneider, has received a verbal injunction from the Vatican asking him to reduce the frequency of his foreign trips. This measure was taken last spring; the bishop was informed in April by the Nuncio in Kazakhstan, Francis Assisi Chullikatt, of this extraordinary restriction on…
Like many Catholics who love their faith, I have struggled to find an explanation for the current crisis in the Church. Despite countless hours of research and analysis, I still find the situation deeply mysterious. It seems that the impossible has happened. It seems that the Church has lost either its visibility or its indefectibility.…
