In light of the 21 June remarks by Pope Francis concerning the German intercommunion handout allowing some Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion, Cardinal Brandmüller reminds Catholics now of the fundamental principles involved in this matter. He reminds us that there are only few cases of dire emergency where Christians of the Eastern…
On 25 May, Archbishop Luis Ladaria, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), wrote a letter to Cardinal Reinhard Marx and the German bishops. He told the German bishops’ conference not to publish their pastoral handout allowing some Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion under certain conditions. Today,…
Last Thursday, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, Cardinal Rainer Woelki, one of the seven German bishops who opposed the new German intercommunion handout allowing for some Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion, gave a moving speech at the end of the Procession and Pontifical Mass in his Cathedral of Cologne. In this speech,…
Image: Screenshot, ARD (German Broadcaster) As we reported a few days ago, it seems that the progressivist German bishops under the leadership of Cardinal Reinhard Marx – who are facing resistance from seven fellow bishops concerning their new intercommunion handout – are leaning now toward a decentralized solution to the conflict whereby each bishop would…
Yesterday, I received a letter from an eyewitness who recently heard Cardinal Walter Kasper speak about Pope Francis and the intercommunion debate. In this 10 May speech, Kasper called Protestant spouses of Catholics “fresh cells in the Body of Christ’s Church” without that they needed a prior conversion. Kasper, who resides in Rome, seems to…
In the wake of Cardinal Gerhard Müller’s recent strong rebuttal of the German bishops’ decision to admit Protestant spouses of Catholics, in individual cases, to Holy Communion, it is now Cardinal Walter Brandmüller who takes his own stance with regard to this new episcopal step, calling the German bishops’ referral to “individual cases” a “salami…
My family and I were spread out in the living room, surrounded by that comfortable cacophony of semi-clutter that makes a house a home, poised to embark on our nightly rosary…when the phone rang. (Of course.) My brother answered in that classic teenaged, almost military style, in which his tone conveyed absolutely nothing to the…
Editor’s note: Vivifica is a pen name for two Catholic university students studying theology. Established in the summer of 2017, Vivifica aims to revive and restore Catholic traditions through web videos, blogging, and parish missions. Each Sunday, during holy days of obligation, and during the week when we can, we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of…
I was recently asked by a number of people: “When ought one to point out liturgical abuses and endeavor to correct them?” My interlocutors had been confused by a number of partial truths. Let us, then, exclude several erroneous answers. “To correct an abuse, you need to have perfect charity and disinterested motives.” No man…
What does “Catholic” really mean? In order to answer that question, to the benefit of Catholic and non-Catholic alike, I’d like to examine the core distinguishing elements of catholicity. I hope to reveal the inner logic of the word, which is the unity of the people of God in all eras, in every place, in…
“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…
