Exchanging Truth for a Lie

The Pan-Amazonian Plan to Eliminate God, the Church, and Salvation

Now that the Pan-Amazon Synod is over in Rome, we should not be surprised at the strange and unsettling things that we are seeing and hearing in relation to it. The Pre-Synodal Instrumentum Laboris (hereafter IL) forewarned us quite … [Read more...]

The “Experience” of Modernism

The Instrumentum Laboris (IL), or working document, of the recently concluded synod on youth states quite starkly that “personal experiences cannot be placed in question” (IL 55).[1. Instrumentum laboris, XV Ordinary General Assembly of Syn … [Read more...]

Spiritual Communion: Freed from the Dust of Centuries

On the Pastoral Milieu: Extreme Alternatives to Approaching the Lord’s Table From hearsay: The vigil of All Saints’ Day in the early 20th century. A small farm in Westphalia, Germany. Tomorrow’s Mass is one of the few times in the year in w … [Read more...]

How the Synod of 2015 Ignored the Real Problem, 50 Years in the Making

It’s hard to believe now, but at the beginning of the year, Synod 2015 was predicted to be a possible game changer for the Church. According to various media reports, the Synod promised to be: “stormy,” “intense,” a time of “great expectatio … [Read more...]

Further Thoughts on the Synod

There was rejoicing at the first calling of the Synod because the family is in a bad way almost everywhere in the world. If there has been so much dissatisfaction with last year's—preliminary—Synod it is because the reports given, and the im … [Read more...]

Preaching the Homily and the New Evangelization

Preaching in all its forms is indispensable to the Church’s mission given to her by Jesus Christ: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching the … [Read more...]

Theology of the Body: Insights for the Synod on the Family

Introduction The upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Family, in October 2015, faces a huge challenge. The preparatory document for the synod reminded us that many families find themselves crushed and abandoned. [1. Holy See, "The Vocation … [Read more...]

Laying the Foundation for Forming Disciples in Our Parishes

A recent mailing of the Franciscan University of Steubenville declares, “The age of casual Catholicism is over. The age of heroic Catholicism has begun.”[1. Fr. Terrence Henry, TOR, Franciscan University of Steubenville. ] Men and women sta … [Read more...]

Winter Reading for January 2015

New Evangelization: Passing on the Catholic Faith Today. Cardinal Donald Wuerl.  (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2013) 91 pages. (Reviewed by Dr. Edward Peters) ______ A Future Built on Faith: Religious Life and the Legacy o … [Read more...]

An Advent Reflection: Redemptor Hominis, Redeemer of Man

Introduction The encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, has a specific place in the ministry of Pope St. John Paul II. It was proclaimed the first Sunday of Lent, 1979, the first encyclical of the new pontificate, hence the link to Advent—it m … [Read more...]

Should homilies offer systematic instruction?

June 2013 Editorial

...there has been, in my view, a serious neglect of instruction of the faithful in the fundamentals of the Catholic faith in a systematic way in most of our parishes. Recently a priest friend asked me, “How can we teach the faith during S … [Read more...]