Commentary
What to do when the conclave comes
We never know the motivations of the anonymous cardinals who leak the conclave’s secrets, but we know they are untrustworthy.
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When Churchmen seek to rally earthly troops
It is not for priests or bishops or patriarchs (or even popes) to encourage mortal combat; their role is to proclaim the peace of Christ, and especially to minister to the souls under their jurisdictional care so that they may become more Christlike in all things.
5.6 St. Peter Damian: The Medieval Jerome
St. Peter Damian (1007 - 1072 AD) is another one of our lesser-known Doctors of the Church, and yet he was, in his time, a man who could give advice to the Popes, and call for reform in the clergy and in the monasteries. Known as a Catholic reformer (long before the Protestant Reformation), he confronted clergy immorality, simony and lay investiture, as well as corruption in the process of the election of Popes, and he was a member of the first college of cardinals, as we know it today.
The structure of Catholic revolutions?
Massa’s failure to understand the people he portrays is evident especially in his concluding chapter, when he attempts to summarize his findings and explain the similarities he sees among these “fundamentalist” Catholics.
192—Latin learning and classical Christian education w/ Ryan Hammill
Ryan Hammill of the Ancient Language Institute joins Thomas for a practical discussion about how to learn Latin, as well as the central place of the classical languages (Latin and Greek) in classical Christian education, and the various schools of thought in today’s classical Christian education movement.
Trump and Vance are right about Ukraine
You don't have to run down Zelenskyy or Ukraine to support the Trump-Vance strategy on the war. You don't have to praise Putin or Russia either. You just have to see the world as it is.
Ukraine: Painful decisions about war and peace
At some point, the sheer slaughter has to be brought to an end no matter who has the moral high ground. Martyrdom is not too great a price to pay for defending a just cause; but the continuing slaughter of those who have no choice really does become, at some point, too great a price. Both Pope Francis and Donald Trump (for what it is worth) favor a search for a settlement which: (a) Abandons recriminations as fruitless; and (b) Offers a better way forward for both parties.
When will we fully embrace the Council?
What Pope Benedict said in a letter to his brother bishops, as he issued Summorum Pontificum, applies to all of the Council’s teachings, not just the proposed reform of the liturgy: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.”
Your sexual pathology doesn’t make you special
No matter what temptations assail us, it is part of the Christian vocation to face up to the truth about ourselves, and then seek conversion and healing. When we categorize ourselves in ways that justify our disordered inclinations, we are refusing the call to conversion. A Church that condoned this would not be a truly compassionate spiritual physician, but a field hospital staffed by quacks with a reputation for filling out ample prescriptions, no questions asked.
Don’t give Trump a pass on IVF
That Trump has promised to broaden access to IVF should be no surprise; he made that promise during his campaign. What IS a surprise is that some prominent pro-lifers have urged us not to complain.
Terrence Malick and the Knights of Columbus: Voyage of Time (2016)
The Criteria crew continues its series on the films of Terrence Malick, jumping ahead to the experimental documentary Voyage of Time, which was co-produced by the Knights of Columbus! Voyage of Time portrays the creation and development of the cosmos, the Earth, and the living creatures on it from the beginning of the universe to its end. The main point of the film is simply to evoke wonder at creation with its gorgeous photography, sound design and music.
Sicilian Pilgrimage with Mike Aquilina and Jim Papandrea
Mike Aquilina and Jim Papandrea discuss the origins of pilgrimage as a Christian spiritual practice, and the upcoming pilgrimage they are leading in Sicily!
The Apostle of a Happy Death
Let’s return to the reasonable natural-law ethics of a Greek pagan. Invoke the authentic Oath of Hippocrates.
Another sloppy petition in Evening Prayer
In the Eternal Rest prayer we are attempting to tie in one or more souls, the fate of which we do not know, with what we do know about the souls of the faithful departed; we are entreating God’s mercy and affirrming what we know about that mercy at the same time.
Vice President Vance deftly de-escalates conflict with Pope Francis
Call it Vanceism. Or the Vance Doctrine. A more specific subset of the populist nationalism—and a more Catholic one. Vanceism is the particular strain of Trumpism that Catholics should be rooting for.
Soul Garden: A Catholic Mother’s Collective
Catholic Culture's Book review for Soul Garden: a Catholic Mother's Collective edited by Hope Schneir and Sia Hoyt, printed by Ignatius Press.
A pivotal moment—for both State and Church
When nations seek to be dominant throughout the whole world, one of two things seems to be the case: Either they are looking for domestic wealth and power, in which case their distant “possessions” suffer exploitation, or they are looking for sources of cheaper production, in which case their own people suffer through the outsourcing of work. In the second case, it is only a slight exaggeration to observe that the rich become jet-setting tycoons and the poor become…opioid addicts.
A just man in an unjust war
He lost both those battles, was deposed, and lived in exile, in poverty, while the bloodshed continued. But in the process, by his fidelity, he won a more precious crown.
When diocesan abuse policies violate canon law
So the publication of lists of priests who have been “credibly accused” is an injustice, a breach of canon law, an offense against the healthy Anglo-American legal assumption that someone is innocent until proven guilty, and a violation of Vatican guidelines. Yet many American dioceses have published such lists.
100 tough questions for Catholics: Read responsibly!
Sadly, even when these questions are asked of fellow Catholics, the answers given may be either inadequate or false. And when that is the case, the result will be a declining faith and commitment on the part of the questioner. By selecting a broad range of questions with this precise problem in mind, Bonagura provides intelligent answers that impart the understanding necessary to get on the right track…and keep going deeper into the Faith.
5.5 St. Gregory of Narek: Doctor of Mercy
St. Gregory of Narek (c. 945-1003), was an Armenian saint - a monk, scholar, poet, and hymn writer. Praised as a saint by Pope St. John Paul II, who called by him the “great Marian doctor of the Armenian Church,” St. Gregory of Narek was officially proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis in 2015–one of the most recent additions to the list of the Doctors of the Church.
All about Lent and Holy Week: Book Review
Catholic Culture Book Review of All About Lent and Holy Week: Sharing the Seasons of Repentance and Salvation with Children by Katherine Bogner and illustrated by Shari Van Vranken.
The Pedagogy of Forgiveness
The rigors of Christian love purify our motivations for forgiveness. Justice gives mercy its meaning. So we must love justice and call evil by its name.
My thoughts as Pope Francis nears his death—or doesn’t
If our papa needs help, our goal must be to help him. Not out of any partisanship, any “party spirit,” this faction vs. that faction. But out of “the reality of my baptismal promises.”
Speculating about the Pope’s health
After a few days of those anodyne Vatican bulletins, reports in the mainstream media began to say that the Pope’s condition was worsening. Actually I think it would be more accurate to say that after his first two or three days in the hospital, the Pope’s condition was pretty much the same, but the few details leaking out of the Gemelli complex were revealing that his illness had been, from the outset, more serious than the Vatican wanted to admit.
Our politics must arise from a counter-cultural Christianity
These observations are incontestable. Without them, the only possibility is moral and political chaos. Therefore, the first step is to get people to acknowledge that an objective standard of human behavior is essential to human flourishing, and that without advertence to such a standard there is no possibility for controlling the misguided excesses which so frequently undermine the common good.
191—How the Church Invented Musical Notation—Christopher Page
The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years, by the great English musicologist Christopher Page, covers the development of Christian liturgical music from its origins as an elaboration of the role of the lector to its flourishing in the monastic and cathedral singing schools of France, as Roman chant was spread across Europe. One of the most important developments was the gradual development of a system of notation in the late first millennium.
The ‘ordo amoris’ and the bottom line
St. John Henry Newman explained the concept with his characteristic elegance, where he describes the love of family and friends— of those in the first concentric circle, if you will— “as the source of more extended Christian love.”
St. John Henry Newman—The Oxford Sermons | 2. The Influence of Natural and Revealed Religion Respectively
"The philosopher aspires towards a divine principle; the Christian, towards a Divine Agent."
Free Liturgical Year Volume 3 Released: LENT
Our liturgical year ebooks include all the liturgical day information for each season just as it appears on CatholicCulture.org. These offer a rich set of resources for families to use in living the liturgical year in the domestic church. Resources include biographies of the saints to match each feast day, histories of the various celebrations and devotions, descriptions of customs from around the world, prayers, activities and recipes.
When Catholics praise single parenthood
Prior to the sexual revolution, there was always a stigma on having a child out of wedlock and on the behavior that leads to it. Every child is a gift from God, but parents who deprive their child of a loving family do not deserve the congratulations due to spouses who follow God’s ordinance to be fruitful and multiply in honorable wedlock. If we want fewer abortions and fewer suffering children, we will need to return to the social guardrails of old, including a healthy social pressure.
Recommended aids to improve your prayer life in Lent
Periodically I try to recommend a few worthwhile books for devotional use during Lent, concentrating on what might have been newly released by trusted Catholic publishers.
The Marx Brothers w/ James Matthew Wilson
Poet and philosopher James Matthew Wilson joins the podcast to discuss two films by the Marx Brothers (Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera). Wilson also reads one of his poems featuring allusions to the Marx Brothers, and talks about the letters written between Groucho Marx and T.S. Eliot.
The Crown of Human Perfection
God did not allow sin to obliterate His handiwork. We remain images of God, even in our fallen state.
Happy Ordo Amoris Day
Happy Valentine's Day! Or Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day! Or, this year, let's just declare it Ordo Amoris Day. Here's why.
A Valentine’s-Day challenge to young single Catholic men
When I heard today’s Gospel reading, because it was Valentine’s Day, I thought of the young men who, it seems, need a miracle to loosen their tongues so that they can pop the question.
The Pope’s disastrous letter on immigration
In his letter Pope Francis is on very firm ground when he states the Church’s unshakable commitment to human dignity. No one— in the Catholic Church or in the Trump administration— should have objected to that principle. But the Pope’s distorted application of the principle now makes it easier to dismiss even that sound first principle.
5.4 St. Gregory of Narek: Patron Saint of Armenia
In the first episode on St. Gregory of Narek (c. 945-1003), Dr. Papandrea introduces one of the newest additions to the list of Doctors of the Church. Gregory was an Armenian monk, scholar, poet, and saint, who was praised by Pope St. John Paul II.
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