On December 21, Pope Francis spoke about Our Lady and Saint Joseph in the Nativity scene being full of holiness and joy. He continued: “And you will tell me: of course! They are Our Lady and Saint Joseph! Yes, but let us not think it was e … [Read more...]
Articles
Mary the Perfected Witness
Achieving Our Saintly Destiny in a World of Choices
“How Shall This Be?”
A Call to Humility for a New Pentecost
Consider, O Brethren, this great marvel. God is on high: reach up to Him, and He flees from you; Lower yourself before Him, and He comes down to you. — St. Augustine There has been an almost-constant stream of news concerning sexual a … [Read more...]
Requirements of Conjugal Love
Blueprinting for a Lasting Marriage in Christ
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines the Sacrament of Matrimony as a “matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life . . . ordered toward the good of the spouses and t … [Read more...]
What does the Doctor Diagnose? Listening to the Church Doctor
St. Catherine of Siena on Perennial Principles for Our Attitudes towards Priests
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...]
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...]
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...]















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