“Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves. Let us pray for one another, that the Lord will carry us and that we will learn to carry one another.” — Pope Benedict XVI at his installation Mass (24 April 2005) “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from the … Read more
Poland, 1982: A young woman early into her fifth pregnancy sits in a doctor’s office at the end of an examination. “You know, ma’am, you really need to be more responsible about your fertility. You don’t have to breed like a rabbit.” The doctor – a dedicated communist – proceeds to write her a referral … Read more
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Mt. 9:36) Last Sunday, there was a Mass in Luneta, the large urban park in Manila where a reported 6 million Catholics gathered to see Pope Francis – despite a typhoon. In the wind and the … Read more
It is difficult to adequately describe (to those unfamiliar with anything but the present Catholic experience) the vast difference between the way the Church did almost everything before and after the Second Vatican Council. If the liturgy marks the most obvious change to the life of the Church, there are dozens of other, less apparent … Read more
Yesterday, I wrote about the strange case of disappearing devotions in the post-conciliar era. I mentioned that I had put in a call to Church of the Immaculate Conception to see what had happened to the Purgatorian Society that had formerly been based there. Last night, I got a call back. The priest I spoke … Read more
In October 1966, less than a year after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, philosopher and eminent Catholic theologian Dietrich Von Hildebrand asked whether or not we are better prepared to “meet Christ in the mass by soaring up to Him, or by dragging Him down into our own pedestrian, workaday world.” (The Case … Read more
“O how I have loved thy law, O Lord! It is my meditation all through the day. Through thy commandment thou hast made me wiser than my enemies: for it is always with me.” Psalm 119: 97-98. From Evangelii Guadium, to his synod address, and everywhere in between, Pope Francis has returned again and again … Read more
There is no question that something about Pope Francis catches the imagination of those who might otherwise have nothing to do with the Catholic Church. From the displays of humility that splash across the news to the refusal to live in the apostolic palace or follow time-honored papal traditions to the endless string of off-the-cuff … Read more
The disorder introduced into our human nature by Adam’s fall from grace reveals itself especially through seven dominant vices known in the Catholic tradition as the capital sins. These are: pride, avarice, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. We call them “capital” sins (from the Latin caput, “head”) because they are the sources or fountainheads … Read more
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