A sub-category of News.
The other shoe finally dropped: Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former papal nuncio to the United States who came to worldwide fame during the 2018 McCarrick scandal, has been excommunicated. This came as no surprise to those who have been following the Archbishop’s actions in recent years, but nonetheless it is always shocking when a high-ranking…
This 7th Sunday after Pentecost is the 17th anniversary of the day Pope Benedict XVI released the text of Summorum Pontificum, 07-07-07, the liturgical “emancipation proclamation” for those who desire the benefits of the Vetus Ordo. Let us pray earnestly for those who are charged with the governance of such matters now, that they eschew…
For those of us fortunate enough to be annealed in hope, our horizons shaped by the Event of Jesus Christ, the situation we face can be stated quite simply. That for all the turmoil of the times in which we live, from a collapsing culture to a politics poisoned by hate, our lives nevertheless remain…
Above: Jewish Composer András Schiff, one of several significant non-Catholic signers. All traditional Catholics know the story: that Agatha Christie and various others signed a petition to Pope Paul VI in 1971 asking him not to prohibit the celebration of the Traditional Mass, and he relented: at least, he allowed it to be celebrated publicly…
When I worked in the Cleveland Diocese’s Latin American Mission, Catholic Relief Services and the University of Central America (the Jesuit “inspired” UCA) often invited me and other colleagues for the visit of celebrities and activists from the United States who were doing a star turn in El Salvador. That is how I met Cardinal…
There is a campaign well underway to separate “good gay” from all those other icky iterations that sully “good gay.” It goes a couple of different but related ways. One is that the LGBs are just fine, but the Ts? No, the Ts are nuts and have never really been part of the LGBs. The…
What does it mean to be free? Our political understanding of freedom is changing in ways that are sometimes subtle. Catholics run the risk of accepting at face value a narrow view of “political freedom” and sacrificing what it means truly to be free. Bill Maher now has more in common with an average Catholic…
A recent article in OnePeterFive suggests that zealous reading of the news – which the author implicitly equates to neck-craning as we pass an accident – is dismissed as, at best, a worthless enterprise and as, at worst, a sinful one. In support of his thesis, the author, Dr. Andrew Peach, appeals to St. Thomas…
The above NBC News headline was typical of media reaction to the June 27, 2024, presidential debate between Joe Biden and Republican candidate Donald Trump. Indeed, it was a most humiliating and embarrassing moment for the 81-year-old president, who spoke incoherently and stumbled over his words before an audience of 50 million viewers. Now in…
Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a favorite for social commentary, but has it ever had more fitting application than last Thursday’s presidential debate? “The President is senile!” cried the Democrats. And so he was. But unless old Joe chooses otherwise, he, like the emperor in the famous tale, will shuffle…
