La Stampa‘s “Vatican Insider” section is reporting that Vincenzo Cardinal Paglia, President of the Pontifical Council on the Family, announced the impending release of Pope Francis’ post-synodal exhortation at a course on the family in Portugal this week. The Italian cardinal said he was certain that the Pope’s text will focus on a Catholic Church that “ventures out”…
Last month I wrote an article imagining what would happen if Catholic Church leaders were in charge of Coca-Cola when the company introduced New Coke. I was being tongue-in-cheek, of course, but my goal was to show that failed ideas in the Church are sometimes harder to kill than a horde of zombies. A friend…
“But let your speech be yea, yea: no, no: and that which is over and above these, is of evil.” – Mt. 5:37 Every parent knows the truth about setting an example. Children are perceptive. They’re wired for subtext. They don’t care about what you say nearly as much as what you do. If you…
Last week, I shared a report from Sandro Magister about a Lutheran group in Rome receiving Holy Communion at a Catholic Mass after a meeting with Pope Francis. Some commenters later questioned how accurate the story was. In a followup from LifeSiteNews, we hear a bit more detail about what happened: A group of Finnish Lutherans…
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 How Does the Complete Mass Build Motivated Focus? How Does the Minimal Mass Induce Blur? Motivated vs. Coerced Focus In order to clarify the reasons why the “complete Mass”[1] is highly beneficial to the people, but the “minimal Mass”[2] is much less so, it will be helpful…
In my post earlier today, I quoted Pope Francis on the topic of what Saul did in the Old Testament. This was the basis for his comments about Christians with “closed hearts,” the “sin of divination” when adhering to tradition, and the sin of “idolatry” when Christians are “obstinate.” The papal statement in question: “In the…
A few days ago, when speaking with a close friend, I said, “Pope Francis has been quiet for a while now, but I can feel it coming. A whole new barrage is just around the corner.” Somewhere, deep in my soul, I heard the distant whistle of incoming ecclesiastical artillery. The Vatican war machine appears to be…
Well, it’s already January 20th, and the good news is, we’re off to a roaring start. New articles, new authors, new topics, new podcasts (soon, soon), and a whole year ahead of us to grow and create and find new and better ways to share the beauty of the Catholic Faith and tradition with our audience. The…
On his blog at l’Espresso, Vatican-watcher Sandro Magister relates the events of an ecumenical gathering happening in Rome this week. We’re still working on getting an official translation, but Google translate (with a little grammatical assistance from your editor) provides us with this: “I ask myself: but we have the same baptism? If we have…
The interview of some Lubbock, TX cowboys following a worlds-colliding kind of incident with a few of their steer has been making the Internet rounds. The men captured two runaway cattle that had escaped their ranch and were on somewhat of a rampage through the city and on its surrounding freeway, including an unannounced visit to…
I’ve come to realize that for all its distractions, Social Media serves as a reminder of the fragility of life, the closeness of death, and the ever-present tragedies that intermingle with our joys in this Vail of Tears. Over the years, I’ve heard more heartbreaking stories than I care to think about, all of them…
