This is a post about gratitude. Gratitude to all of you. Gratitude to one special person in particular, too. But before I get to that, with our third anniversary online just a few days away, I think some history is in order. Not long after Pope Francis was elected, I quit my job as Director…
Mass of Saint Gregory the Great by Master of Portillo (1520-1525). Far too often these days liturgical discussions pertaining to the Roman Rite start with the popular myth that the Traditional Latin Mass only dates back to the sixteenth century and the Council of Trent (1545-1563). While some make this claim simply due to a lack of catechesis,…
Image: Interior of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Roanoke, Virginia. When I was a teenager, and when it came to considering the state of life to which God was calling me, I had strong, gripping hopes and dreams for what I wanted to do – but an even stronger, more gripping fear of letting my…
At Mass this morning, a baby girl was sitting in the pew directly in front of me. She had wide, inquisitive eyes and dark, fuzzy hair that stood on end. Her carrier was turned in such a way that she was staring right at me throughout the first parts of the Mass, and every time…
Image: Cardinal Müller and Pope Emeritus Benedict — Source Today, 19 July, there appeared a new interview with Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It is an interview which he had given in early July to the prominent secular German news agency DPA (German Press Agency); this…
Image: The late Joaquín Navarro-Valls, Director of the Holy See Press Office from 1984 to 2006. Editor’s Note: In the following text, first published this morning at MarcoTosatti.com, veteran Vatican journalist Marco Tosatti reflects upon his own experience with the nature and credibility of Vatican denials at a time when they have become so prolific. Food for…
Image: the Palazzo del Sant’Uffizio as it appears on Google Street View. This is the building where the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are housed. Last week, we received a text sent to us from reliable Italian sources. It offers new details on a recent scandal which has made international headlines.…
I had an exchange with someone in the comment box today about how exhausting the slog is right now. I know you know what I mean. Every day, you’re out there fighting for your faith. Every day, you’re reading the stories that make you want to tear your hair out, but you still share them…
We reported last week on the death of Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Germany, Archbishop Emeritus of Cologne and one of the four so-called “dubia cardinals”. Dr. Maike Hickson also shared a touching memorial of Meisner, who by all accounts was beloved by all who knew him. In a report on the German cardinal written last year, Hickson…
On Thursday, July 13, Cardinal Cristoph Schönborn — the pope’s chosen interpreter and advocate for his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia — addressed an audience at the “Let’s Talk Family: Let’s Be Family” conference in Ireland in anticipation of the World Meeting of Families in Dublin next year. According to Greg Daly of The Irish Catholic, Schönborn opened his talk…
As Vatican Radio reported on 22 June 2017, Pope Francis has named Professor Joachim von Braun as the new President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS). Professor von Braun is Ordinary Professor of Economics and Technological Change, as well as Director of the Center for Decvelopment Research at the University of Bonn, Germany. According…
