Introductory Note: The author is restricting this essay to attitudes toward priests in light of the Philadelphia Grand Jury report. She extends wholehearted sympathy for the shattered lives affected by the actions of immoral priests. By … [Read more...]
Articles
What does the Doctor Diagnose? Listening to the Church Doctor
St. Catherine of Siena on Perennial Principles for Our Attitudes towards Priests
Does the Text of Amoris Laetitia Allow Communion for the Divorced and Remarried?
Part 2
Previously, I have presented the positive argumentation that the text of Amoris Laetitia does not allow Communion for the divorced and remarried who intend to continue sexual relations.[1. Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC, “Does the Text of A … [Read more...]
Pope Francis and the Purification of Heroic Desire
It is the duty of pastoral homiletics to call the faithful to heroic virtue. Virtue itself, to be sure, is a core fruit of receiving the Gospel, but, at times, we need to hear the call to heroic virtue; that is, we must know that the next … [Read more...]
Christian Environmental Love
The Eucharist as Lamb and Predator-Prey Transformation
The ambiance, the setting in which the human person lives, the “waters” in which we swim, is our “environment.” It represents the totality in which the human person lives, relates, and interacts. More than that, for the believer in a transce … [Read more...]
Catherine O’Donnell’s Elizabeth Seton: American Saint
A Review Essay
O’Donnell, Catherine. Elizabeth Seton: American Saint. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018. 508 pages. As the only scholarly biography of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton to be published since her canonization in 1975, Christine O’Donnell’s w … [Read more...]
Classical Education Is the Answer to De-Hellenization
It seems that the notion of “Hellenization” in various ways is catching people’s imagination more and more. A few years ago I was listening to a radio program where a Dominican priest named Fr. Gabriel Gillen said, “Before we can have a New … [Read more...]
“Many Shall Come from the East and the West”
A Comparison of the Preaching of Augustine and John Chrysostom
Introduction “Many shall come from the East and the West and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 8:11). The two great preachers of the fourth and fifth centuries — John Chrysostom, Bisho … [Read more...]
Does the Text of Amoris Laetitia Allow Communion for the Divorced and Remarried?
Part 1
Since it came out, some have argued that Amoris Laetitia permits Communion for the divorced and remarried. This is often based on a few lines rather than going back and analyzing the text as a whole in line with tradition.[1. I will deal … [Read more...]
Real Celibacy Is an Invitation from Divine Beauty
The personal call of Christ to follow him in a life of chaste celibacy brings a seminarian into a suffering that involves his whole person. Seminary formation serves such a man by assisting him to integrate chastity within his body. Such … [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...]
Fr. George Rutler’s Calm in Chaos: Catholic Wisdom for Anxious Times
A Review Essay
In his introduction to his book of essays titled Calm in Chaos: Essays for Anxious Times (Ignatius Press, 2018), Father George W. Rutler writes, “These essays touch upon confusions in the Church that are not without precedent but that are o … [Read more...]
The Necessity of Rituals
Although we may not be aware of rituals, they weave themselves into the fabric of our days in one way that defines who we are as individuals. A definition of ritual can be a regular pattern of words or actions. The way we answer the phone … [Read more...]
A Sure Way to Save the Church
Developing the Doctrine on the Eucharist
Part I – Jesus Christ Seems to Be Just a Memory It’s been centuries since there has been such open opposition between cardinals and bishops as there is today over Pope Francis’s perplexing Amoris Laetitia, which has spawned so much discord … [Read more...]
Aquinas as Biblical Exegete
His Interpretation of Paul’s “Thorn in the Flesh”
No doubt Thomas Aquinas is most famous as a systematic theologian who made great use of philosophical sources such as Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Nevertheless, when Aquinas first taught at the University of Paris, he held the title of Magister … [Read more...]
Conscience
The Echo of God's Voice
Conscience is the voice of God, whereas it is fashionable on all hands now to consider it in one way or another a creation of man.[1. John Henry Newman, in The Genius of John Henry Newman: Selections from his Writings, ed. Ian Ker (Oxford: … [Read more...]
Recent Comments