During the 2014 and 2015 synods on marriage and the family, the issue that rose to greatest prominence and concern was the so-called “Kasper Proposal” — a pastoral allowance suggested by Cardinal Walter Kasper of Germany that would create provisions to give the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion to Catholics who are divorced and living…
I was away from my office for most of the day today, and while I was gone came some sad news: John Vennari — husband, father, Catholic champion, and editor of Catholic Family News — has passed on to his eternal reward after a difficult battle with cancer. I know that his wife, children, and…
Under Pope Francis, Rome has moved with surprising haste to take concrete steps to bring the Society of St. Pius X closer to a regularized canonical situation. While SSPX Masses have always been seen as valid (though of questionable liceity), other sacraments offered by priests of the society which require jurisdiction from the local ordinary —…
I don’t know about all of you, but lately I’ve not been in a very good state of mind. Everything feels harder than it used to. The battle, which was always fought uphill, has begun to appear almost futile. Trials and difficulties have seeped into all the various facets of life — work, family, expenses, the lived experience…
Mission accomplished. After four years of pontificate, this is the assessment that has been made by the cardinals who brought Jorge Mario Bergoglio to election as pope. The operation that produced the Francis phenomenon arises from a long time ago, as far back as 2002, when for the first time “L’Espresso” discovered and wrote that…
An important Conference has been announced today by the Italian website La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana. On 22 April, there will be an international group of theologians and other Catholic specialists coming together in Rome — at the Columbus Hotel — in order to discuss publicly once more the troubling and confusing parts that are to…
Yesterday, 31 March, it became widely known that Pope Francis has chosen Anne-Marie Pelletier, a French Professor of hermeneutics and biblical exegesis, to write the meditations for the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum on Good Friday which will be read by the pope himself. The author of this year’s Via Crucis Meditations was…
In my summary of newly-alleged details about the Sovereign Military Order of Malta’s inner workings, I concluded with this statement: Are we expected to believe this is all just a series of coincidences? Rumor has it that some of the players in this story are…aggressively litigious, so perhaps we’re not supposed to ask. It appears…
(Image credit: By meandmybadself [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons) Over at LifeSiteNews, editor-in-chief John-Henry Westen has an analysis of the current state of confusion as regards the papal position on Holy Communion for the divorced and “remarried” boldly titled, Pope Francis is playing with fire. Hell fire. Westen has, as we’ve recently noted, been taking a…
(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 a Catholic artist who, having studied the deprivations of ‘Modern art,’ is concerned about the…
(Image source) In our extensive summary of the toppling of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta by Rome, we examined the curious reports of an estate left by a wealthy Frenchman that should have resulted in a bequest of millions to the Order. Rather than reconstruct events, I’ll excerpt that portion of our report at length:…
