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All Catholic commentary from January 2025
5.1 The Doctors of the Church—Introduction
With this episode, we begin our new series on the Doctors of the Church. What is a Doctor of the Church? Are all Doctors also saints? What makes a person a Doctor of the Church? All these questions, and more, will be answered, as well as some hints at what you can expect from this series. Get ready to sample the fruit of some of the greatest minds the Church has ever produced!
Mary, the Mass, and Vanilla Priests
Just as Marxist and “woke” ideologies hope to cut off the past and remake ourselves in the image of various ideologies, we are often eager to update the Church according to contemporary whims. And the Mass is a frequent target.
Is it always wrong to speak plainly? A Christmas answer
Today it is generally considered sinful to firmly speak the truth except when somebody clearly wishes to hear it. Yet, if it is not to be useless, truth demands more frequent expression. Here is a sample of what the truth sounds like. Have we heard it recently? Have we said it recently?
A failed attempt to enforce priestly celibacy?
Is it pure coincidence that the bishops cited for incompetence in management seem to come exclusively from one end of the theological spectrum?
Liturgical Year Volume 2 Released: Ordinary Time before Lent
This liturgical year ebook includes all the liturgical day information for the period of Ordinary Time before Lent just as it appears on CatholicCulture.org. It offers 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.
Bonds of Blood
Clear violations of the Commandments often require the prophetic voice of the clergy. However, the clergy frequently fail to maintain the necessary restraint and infringe upon the rights and duties of the laity.
What the Magi took away
Why did these men from another country want to see “he who has been born king of the Jews?” This was not a diplomatic mission. This was a pilgrimage: a journey of faith.
The best books Catholic Culture staff read in 2024
It’s time for the Catholic Culture staff’s roundup of our favorite things we read in the past year, with lists by Dr. Jeff Mirus, Phil Lawler, Dr. Jim Papandrea, Peter Wolfgang, and Thomas Mirus.
Prophetic courage in the public square, and everywhere
Most of my readers have already been baptized as “priests, prophets and kings”. Unfortunately, most of us do not work very hard at developing the prophetic aspect. In fact, just as there were huge numbers of false prophets in Israel who told the high and mighty exactly what they wanted to hear, so too is even the Catholic Church herself always riddled with false prophets—with all those who bear the Catholic name but who constantly seek either to conceal the Catholic spirit or to betray it.
188—Christians against AI art—Susannah Black Roberts
Surprisingly, many Christians are already embracing the use of AI to produce images of the saints. In this episode, Thomas and Susannah Black Roberts make the argument for why AI art is a contradiction in terms. It is analogous to pornography in that it scratches the itch to “create” without actually achieving the object of the desire in question. We should not use technology to replace the human specialties: “God won’t accept worship that we outsource.”
Not ordinary bread, please, but the Bread of Life
The mere presence of churches is not enough. It is big step for someone to visit a church and navigate his or her way through the physical plant and the staff arrangements to find someone to talk with about spiritual interests, doubts, desires, and fears. It makes perfect sense to have designated locations deliberately staffed for precisely this purpose, and it can only help to advertise them as widely as possible. The goal must be availability without intrusiveness.
McElroy, McCarrick, and the Catholic Left
Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal McElroy the next Archbishop of Washington, DC. It's a bad call for reasons political, pastoral, and doctrinal. But most of all, says Wolfgang, it's a bad call because of lingering questions about McElroy and "Uncle Ted."
Solidarity, Original Sin, and Human Sacrifice
Like an inkblot, evil is expansive. I may regret my road rage but think nothing of its consequences. The recipient of my sin may go home and ruin a happy evening with his family.
The best movies I watched in 2024
Thomas Mirus lists the best movies he watched in 2024.
Quick Hits: Francis & Biden; Episcopal self-control; and…Words
Good bishops tend to their own flocks by ensuring that Catholic teaching and Catholic practice are both held to the highest possible standards of fidelity to Jesus Christ. They don’t fly off on tangents unrelated to their responsibilities and their expertise, especially not to jump onto the various bandwagons that are always passing by.
Confirmed: the corruption Pope Francis chose not to expose
Pope Francis has never mentioned the three cardinals’ report, nor has he attacked the sources of corruption those senior prelates reportedly discovered.
5.2 St. Bede the Venerable: Monk and Scholar
In this episode, the first in our series on the Doctors of the Church, Dr. Papandrea introduces you to St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735 AD). He lived in a Benedictine monastery from the age of seven, and he wrote the first scholarly history of England and its conversion to Christianity. He is considered the “Father of English History” and the patron saint of historians.
The $5 billion cost of ecclesiastical corruption
And of course the monetary costs of the scandal— while easier to calculate— pale in comparison with the human costs: the suffering endured by victims of abuse, the disillusionment of millions of people, the collapse of Catholic influence in the public sphere, the loss of credibility in the hierarchy
Papal biographer unimpressed with papal autobiography
The problem— which many other reviewers have mentioned— is the absence of detail about the life of Pope Francis since he assumed Peter’s Throne.
The Habsburgs on marriage and family
One of the most important points Eduard Habsburg makes in this book is that to have a good marriage and a successful family life, you have to start by getting yourself right with God and the Church, including a commitment to God’s and the Church’s moral laws. You can’t build family life on pre-marital promiscuity or a determination to honor the complete and unrestricted liberty of your spouse and children.
Pope Benedict XVI—Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love) | Part 2
To experience love and in this way to cause the light of God to enter into the world—this is the invitation I would like to extend with the present Encyclical.
The Lamp magazine, assisted suicide, and the difference between Gen X and Millennial Catholics
What is going on here? Why am I—an older guy who has lived through the defeat of causes to which I have given my adult life—more upbeat about the future than the cynical young people at The Lamp? I have a few thoughts on that, based on having read the magazine during its first year of existence.
An imperfect male’s guide to successful married life
Exemplify both an interior and exterior counter-cultural Catholicism in your single life and in your courtship, and then exemplify a those same virtues in your married life, beginning with prayer.
Honesty and Contagious Obedience to Jesus
When we ask God for favors, there is no harm in respectfully presenting all of our needs to God and concluding with love, “Thy will be done.”
Bogart under suspicion: In a Lonely Place (1950)
James and Thomas discuss Nicholas Ray's thrilling 1950 film noir In a Lonely Place. In an outstanding, nuanced performance, Humphrey Bogart plays quick-tempered screenwriter Dixon Steele, who enters into a fast-moving relationship with Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) just as he is under suspicion for the murder of another young woman. The investigation puts a strain on their romance, revealing the problems of relationships without the requisite mutual trust.
189—St. Boethius, Stoicism and Neoplatonism—Thomas Ward
St. Anicius Manlius Severius Boethius's book The Consolation of Philosophy, which he wrote in prison while awaiting martyrdom around the year 524, is one of the single most influential works for medieval philosophy and theology. Thomas Ward has just written a commentary on Boethius's dialogue for Word on Fire, entitled After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher.
If bishops want to be heard on immigration…
If bishops want to be heard on the topic of immigration, they need to exercise rigorous moral focus, honesty about the crisis we face, unskewed rhetoric, and a genuine effort to find common ground with those they hope to influence.
No, the ERA is not part of the Constitution. But why not?
Ask yourself: Who is the most influential woman in American political history? There is only one intelligent answer to that question. So why don’t young American women even know her name?
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Full
Be sure that wherever our lot is cast we may and must aim at the perfect life.
The problem with pluralism: Politics unguided by truth
While everyone should be able to apprehend the natural law, in actual human experience a broad recognition of the natural law has proven to be impossible in practice without the assistance of grace. We are now in the last stages of dissolution of awareness of the natural law in the once-Christian West, and the result is that the chief conflict among citizens is precisely a conflict between those who recognize and abide by the natural law and those who do not.
Trump Inauguration and March for Life
Trump knocked it out of the park at his inauguration, wowed us at the March for Life, and has been "flooding the zone" ever since. Might he also back away from the campaign compromises that disheartened pro-lifers?
The Hypocrisy of Modern Warfare
Statesmen and diplomats invoke international law and condemn ethnic cleansing and genocide. But men of faith are not embarrassed to invoke God’s laws.
IVF and the cross of not being able to conceive a child
There are many couples who are both open to and desirous of children who find themselves frustrated by an inability to conceive. This can be a heavy cross; it can also lead to a sense of having been judged unworthy by God, which is not the case at all. Having genuinely desired children, and having been frustrated in that desire, such couples can be secure in the assurance that Our Lord and Savior has willed for them a different form of fruitfulness that they must continue to discern in prayer.
Vance vs. the bishops on immigration, Part I
The USCCB declares that current immigration policies are “non-responsive to our country's need for labor.” Are the bishops really ready to align themselves with the cold-hearted business moguls who see mass immigration as a convenient source of cheap labor— of workers who will perform menial jobs for wages that native Americans would not accept?
5.3 St. Bede: The Father of English History
In this second episode on St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735 AD), Dr. Papandrea talks about the literary legacy of this Doctor of the Church. Bede is not only considered the “father of English history,” but also the “father of English education.” Although he is now most famous for his Ecclesiastical History of England, his contribution to the Church is actually much greater than that.
Vance vs. the bishops on immigration, Part II
Reasonable Americans should readily understand why churches, especially, should be treated as “sensitive locations” or “protected areas,” not subject to government incursions.
Dreamt of learning Latin? Here’s how you’ll finally do it
An encomium to the amazing Latin textbook Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. Thomas Mirus explains the natural method of language learning used by Hans Ørberg, argues for its superiority to the commonly used "grammar-translation" method, and offers suggestions for how to use this textbook if you're studying on your own.
Vance vs. the bishops on immigration, Part III
Whereas the outgoing Biden administration avoided open confrontation with the Catholic hierarchy, the new crew came into the White House spoiling for a fight.
The Church: Always spiritual, sometimes corporal, never political
The plain truth is that we have heard far more from the Catholic Church over the last fifty years about which prudential governmental policies to support than about which version of Catholic faith and morals to support. Or at least this has been predominately true throughout the West. We have even sometimes heard more about the right choice among political candidates than about the right choice between Satan and Christ.
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