A sub-category of News.
I am looking at a couple of random lines lifted from a bleak little poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., written at a sad time near the end of a short and, by his own reckoning, unfulfilled life. He was quite mistaken about that, by the way. His last words, whispered aloud about how happy…
De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est. This Latin phrase means “Of the dead nothing but good should be said.” Its origins, however, are not Latin, but Greek. It is attributed to Chilon of Sparta, whose Greek original is τὸν τεθνηκóτα μὴ κακολογεῖν. This is slightly different than the Latin translation, as the Greek says…
The way God set up the Church is one Pope, a lot more Bishops, and exponentially more laymen. This should tell us something about our role in the Church. Clearly, the “institutional” Church is not our role, either to be in it or be overly concerned with it. A few years ago, I wrote a…
It was August 18, 2021. I was at a coffee shop in Paso Robles, California. I had kids in college who feared that their institutions might kick them out if they didn’t get one of the experimental mRNA-based Covid “vaccines.” They didn’t need the shots for many reasons, from their healthy age and lack of…
Dear OnePeterFive donors, supporters and readers, As the conclave looms over the Church and everyone is asking questions about what’s next, we at OnePeterFive want to begin preparing for Sacred Heart Month. Last year we promoted the Sacred Heart flag for June and shared photoshops of everyone’s efforts. Whoever becomes the next Pope, the Sacred…
The Roman Catholic Church is still waiting for a genuinely third-millennium pope. All three of the last popes—John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis—were men very much shaped by the 20th rather than the 21st century. When Benedict XVI died, I reflected that both JPII and Benedict were members of what we in America…
As the cardinals gather in conclave, one of the questions on our minds is how the global Church can grow in unity. Francis’ pontificate aggravated deep differences between tradition and progress, between the developing world and the global south, and between continuity and innovation. In addition to the turmoil in the Church, the complexities of…
Above: the State of Puebla, Mexico. Shoulders draped with chains, heads crowned with thorns, flesh punctured with cacti, ankles bound with fetters. Barefoot penitents stood, waiting to begin the annual Good Friday tradition: Procession of the Chained. Under the hot sun, the small group of men – performing acts of faith and acts of gratitude…
Many words could describe the Francis pontificate; to me, the best is ironic. Coming from Argentina, Jorge Bergoglio was considered the ultimate outsider who would bring another wave of aggiornamento to the Church; but instead, he appeared closed inside the stale ideas of liberalism. He criticized those he saw as “wanting to go back,” yet…
I am initially writing these words on February 19, 2025, and the Holy Father, Pope Francis, has pneumonia in both lungs. He is of advanced age and has not been in good health. He likely is dying, and now, in early April, we know this was his final illness. The near approach of death is…
