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…
(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…
From 10-11 March 2017, the Bringing America Back to Life Convention was held in Cleveland, Ohio. The convention was a gathering of nearly 1,500 defenders of life from different religious backgrounds and from all parts of the United States. This gathering, which included the courageous former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson, also featured many Catholic speakers such…
Last night at Saint Raymond of Peñafort parish in Springfield, Virginia, Cardinal Raymond Burke gave a talk in which he addressed questions about the long-awaited “formal correction” promised by the Four Cardinals in the event that Pope Francis does not respond to the dubia submitted to him last September and made public in November. Before the video (courtesy…
Given what we know about the general climate in the world of ecclesiastical politics right now, how would we imagine a good and simple man would fare? Someone for whom decency, honesty, integrity and a plain determination to do his job well are the main drivers of his life? Someone for whom the world of…
Last night, I posted my thoughts on the alleged statements of Pope Francis to the Chilean bishops as regards several items of importance, including Communion for the divorced and “remarried”. If you haven’t read it yet, the gist is that he appears to have contradicted his own previous stance on this issue by saying this:…
A number of people have sent me some version or another of the story on Pope Francis’ meeting with the Chilean bishops last month and asked me to comment on it. According to the bishops of Chile, Francis told them what appear to be some very self-contradictory things. I didn’t have time to commission a…
