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All Catholic commentary from December 2024
Safeguarding the Republican Right-to-Life Agenda
The unfortunate revised stance of the GOP threatens the historical (but always tenuous) pro-life position of the Republican Party. Mainstream Republican pro-life support was always a response to organized pro-life advocacy. So the upcoming months are crucial.
Perseverance—and thick skin!—required for apostolic work
What is important is not that this or that proposed work should succeed or fail, but that more people are drawn to Christ and the Church, and that more people in the Church ask what they can do to strengthen their own faith and the faith of others.
A high court case that challenges the rule of law
In the end, therefore, the most important question before the Supreme Court is not whether sex-change operations are proper medical care, nor whether minors should be protected, nor even whether the Constitution allows state regulations of these treatments. The real issue is whether legal decisions must be guided by evidence and logic.
186—Is there ever enough of Mary? w/ Fr. Charles Anthony Mary, F.I.
De Maria numquam satis: Of Mary never enough. Is this saying of Bernard, echoed by many other saints, a mere overflow of sentimental piety, or can it be sustained as a rational approach to theology? Fr. Charles Anthony Mary, a Franciscan Friar of the Immaculate, draws from the Franciscan tradition to make the case for Mary-Maxing, culminating in the cutting-edge (and controversial) Mariology of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe.
Wishing you a restless Advent
If the parties are all held before Christmas— earlier and earlier, as hosts try to avoid the rush— then both the decorations and the party-goers are wilting by the time Christmas Day arrives. So the premature celebrations that nearly erase Advent also sap the joyous energy from the Christmas season.
Time! How long should the homily be? How long for Mass?
In this “efficiency mode”, my own preference is to hear something from the priest after the Gospel, but it upsets my precious schedule if the homily is longer than a few minutes. And if it goes to fifteen or twenty minutes….well, let’s just say that the last time my watch broke, I decided not to replace it, mostly for spiritual reasons.
Setting the record straight on Governor Grandma
In this week of big national and international happenings, I want to talk about a small thing, a local thing. I want to talk about it because I think it has a lot to do with our present situation on the national level. And because it is a cautionary tale for Catholics like, well, me, who are excited about the new possibilities in the political arena.
Prepare the Way of the Lord with a Good Confession
Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent, but the blame-game gambit didn’t work. They were guilty as charged.
Is Pope Francis fighting youthful battles all over again?
Which recent Pope has done most to clarify the Church’s grasp of the natural moral law (answer: the personalist philosopher St. John Paul II) and which has done most to confuse that grasp (answer: Francis). We might also ask which recent pope has done most to spark a genuine renewal of Catholic theology (answer: the ressourcement theologian Benedict XVI) and which has done most to encourage theologians in re-shaping Divine Revelation to justify contemporary sexual morals (answer: Francis).
My panel on Catholic cinema at Notre Dame’s Fall Conference
A talk I gave at Notre Dame’s 2024 Fall Conference/the Catholic Imagination Conference this year has been uploaded to YouTube by the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. My talk was part of a larger panel together with Nathan Douglas and Andrew Petiprin, titled 30 Years of the Vatican...
St. Boethius: Church Father and Medieval Scholar
St. Severinus Boethius was a man with one foot in the ancient world and one foot in the middle ages. He is another one of our lesser-known fathers who were anything but forgotten among the medieval scholastics. In this episode, Dr. Papandrea introduces another enigmatic but highly influential Church father.
The ‘obscure provision’ of Canon 915
The implication here is that everyday Catholics are familiar with the provisions of canon law. So that presumably they could rattle off the first 914 canons in the code without any difficulty, but when asked to continue, would bog down. “Canon 915? Oh, gosh; that’s obscure.”
Pelosi’s canonical gambit
The logical conclusion… is that Pelosi did not file a canonical appeal anticipating a positive result. She filed the appeal so that she would be able to answer questions from reporters who weren’t keen to press the details.
Reasons for our hope? We do have that obligation.
I might believe anything, for good reasons, for bad reasons, or for no particular reason at all. And certainly the actual supernatural gift of faith is gratuitous, along with the hope and love that go with it. We cannot claim it on our own. Therefore, it is not always the case that we are aware of actual “reasons” or “justifications” for our faith, and we may receive that gift without benefit of the reasons or justifications argued by others. Nonetheless, reasons for our hope are not irrelevant.
Dawn Eden Goldstein wants to sue EWTN: thoughts on the Catholic New Left
No one needed the Catholic Old Left and good riddance to them. But the Catholic New Left? I think we garden variety Catholic conservatives, guys like me, I think we need them.
The Artificial Jesus
Disembodied Artificial Jesus is never negative or scary. Are you tired of homilies at Mass? No worries. Plug in Artificial Jesus. Need heartfelt counseling from an expert? Talk to Artificial Jesus.
187—The Roman Rite, ad orientem worship, and liturgical tradition—Fr. Uwe Michael Lang
Fr. Uwe Michael Lang discusses the history of the Roman Rite, the value of ad orientem worship, problems with liturgical antiquarianism and more.
Synodality today: The power of God or the wisdom of men?
The Church needs to be far less concerned about convoluted structures and exploratory methods in a never-ending effort to appear more “consultative” and “open”. People will learn to manipulate the new structures just as they have manipulated the old. The New Evangelization cannot be accomplished through processes and procedures. Instead, the Church must become once again missionary, and probably never more missionary than in the places where she once thought she was already established.
What the rededication of Notre Dame (should have) taught us
Yet on the day when the cathedral was rededicated, and the attention of the world was focused on this building that speaks of the hunger for transcendence, the ceremony failed to capitalize on this unique “teachable moment.” When the secular world paused, listening to hear the echoes of an ancient faith, the ceremony spoke only in modern language.
The Expectation
For me at least, the “Expectation” evokes strong feelings that every parent knows: the anticipation, the excitement, the anxiety, the impatience that have been building for nine months, coming to a crescendo in the final days before the birth.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel—the O Antiphons!
Through these successive antiphons, the Church expresses its yearning for the coming of the Savior by praising Christ as the wisdom of God, the lord and ruler of Israel, the root of Jesse, the key of David, the Dayspring, the king of nations, and Emmanuel—the name prophesied by Isaiah (7:14), which means “God is with us”, and which St. Matthew applies to Christ in his gospel (1:23).
Brian Burch, the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, might have both official and unofficial duties
Trump nominates CatholicVote's Brian Burch to be U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Wolfgang gives him extra work to do while he's there.
‘The Humanity’
Even today, Christmas competes with wars, rumors of wars, and the national debt for prominence as we anxiously await the next crime of the century. Yet, occasionally, events reveal the simple human significance of the Infancy Narratives.
Blasphemy that’s fit to print?
Kristof leads off his piece, an interview with Princeton University’s Elaine Pagels, the author of The Gnostic Gospels, by saying: “I want to be respectful of readers who have a deep faith….” He has an odd way of showing that respect.
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