A sub-category of News.
Several times during his pontificate the Holy Father has referred to a novel by an English monsignor written over one hundred years ago. Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson was supposedly inspired by some of H.G. Wells’ fictional futures when he wrote The Lord of the World. It was a Catholic response to the Fabian and Labourite…
Death just isn’t what it used to be. That is, if the conversation I heard the other day was any indication. It was at a modest restaurant where a number of joined tables were accommodating a rather large family. My ears shot up when I heard the odd phrase “bereavement team.” Odder still was the…
In apparent answer to the recent papal prolepsis calling for “a courageous cultural revolution” in Catholic theology, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has formally adopted the categories of “transgender persons” and “homosexual persons.” While vats of ink will be spilled on both counts, faithful Catholics continue to pray for an end…
“The one charge which is now sure to secure severe punishment is the careful keeping of the traditions of the Fathers.” These words of St. Basil (Ep. 243) can most aptly illustrate the deposition of the Bishop of Tyler, TX/USA, His Excellency Joseph E. Strickland. The deposition of Bishop Joseph E. Strickland signifies a black…
I’m not sure I’ve ever known anyone quite like Michael D’Souza. We met almost a decade ago at a Redemptorist parish in downtown Bangkok, where I had just moved with my young family. Michael, even among the parish’s large Pakistani asylum-seeker community, stood out. After weekday Masses, when most attendees had departed, he would approach…
I remember the evening my childhood died. It was cold and just before Christmas; the lights were strung up on storefronts. Far across the parking lot, I could hear the ding-dings from a Salvation Army bell in front of the K-Mart. A pay phone rang, and I reached for the receiver. Thereafter, the lights all…
Just before the First Vatican Council, a critic warned what would happen if the council defined papal infallibility as its Ultramontane supporters wished. “Ultramontanism, he wrote, “is essentially Papalism,” and for its adherents the power of the Pope over the Church… neither knows nor tolerates any limits. He is to be sole and absolute master,…
News broke this morning that the stalwart man of God, Bishop Strickland of Tyler Texas was removed from his diocese. The official announcement was terse: The Holy Father has removed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland from the pastoral care of the diocese of Tyler, United States of America, and has appointed Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin…
Social media exploded last week when, on “Reformation Day,” October 31 (did you know?), some Protestant tourists posted a cheeky photo of themselves wearing Martin Luther t-shirts in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Catholics came out in force on X-formerly-Twitter with (mostly) civil rebukes. Then the Protestant side kicked it up a notch with a…
Of the seven letters of Ignatius written in the last weeks of his life, the shortest on record is the one sent to the Christians living in Tralles, a town less than twenty miles from Magnesia. The bishop of Tralles has come to Smyrna to greet the would-be martyr. But for all its brevity, there…
