The purpose of this one Church is to bring about the supernatural communion of all humanity together in the Spirit, under Christ as head, giving praise to the Father. Popes Pius XI, Pius XII, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Pope F … [Read more...]
Catholic Ecumenism: Towards an Integration of Faith, Hope, and Charity
July 26, 2014 by Dr. Christopher J. Malloy
Decoding Vatican II’s Marian Paradigm Shift
June 26, 2014 by Fr. Timothy J. Sauppe, STL
This Vatican II Mariological paradigmatic shift reverberated into all areas of ecclesial theology and liturgy, through a new hermeneutic or interpretation that went beyond the council’s purview and became what is described as a new ethos, t … [Read more...]
The Understanding of Revelation in “Dei Verbum” and the Response of Faith
June 11, 2014 by Thomas Gourlay
While this notion of revelation, understood as the manifestation of ... Christ himself, has been with the Church since the very beginning. There have been many confusions and reductions over time that have altered the very essence of the … [Read more...]
Believing in the Justice of the Cross: Jesus Christ as the Alpha and Omega of Faith
June 11, 2014 by Fr. Lorenzo Rossetti
Adhering with love to the Lord, Victim and Priest, Obedient and Merciful, we embrace him in the real and veiled presence of the broken Bread, and we celebrate the victory against evil, sin, and death. This essay focuses on the … [Read more...]
“Nuclear fission in the…heart of being”: The Eucharist as the Sacrament of Transformations in the Teaching of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
June 11, 2014 by Fr. Donncha Ó. hAodha
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s use of the image of nuclear fission—...in a positive sense, in order to explain the Eucharistic mystery—is contemporary and striking, and apt to convey the quiet, but immense, power of the Mass. The Sacra … [Read more...]
Eschatology and Eucharistic Adoration
May 23, 2014 by Dr. Christopher J. Malloy
...certain “liturgists” and “theologians” ... stamp (Eucharistic Adoration) as mere “private devotion.” In fact, in its complete form, from exposition to benediction, it is a liturgical event. ...it has a long, and shall enjoy an everlasting … [Read more...]
Benedict XVI on Freedom in Obedience to the Truth: A Key for the New Evangelization
May 12, 2014 by Dr. Matthew J. Ramage, PhD
... the more fundamental task ... is to form human hearts, beginning with those who have already been evangelized and need to be “newly evangelized,” those who know something already, but are not living it; those who are showing up in the pe … [Read more...]
Faith Needs Philosophy: A Primer on the Relationship between Reason and Revelation
April 23, 2014 by Brian Jones
The great philosophers that preceded the Judeo-Christian Revelation demonstrated many of the truths about God and the faith that are affirmed in Scripture, and are what St. Thomas calls the preambles of faith. I recently had a brief … [Read more...]
Prayer as Turning Point Toward Christ
April 9, 2014 by Carolyn Humphreys, OCDS
The good news is that even though we sin, God loves us and wants us to return to him. With God’s grace, bad habits can be unlearned. Ecclesia semper reformanda: The Church forever in need of reform. Because we are the Church, we are the o … [Read more...]
Searching for Clarity in Vocational Discernment
March 24, 2014 by Fr. Bryce Sibley
... The call of the Lord usually comes to us in a more subtle and indirect manner ... left up to us, with the assistance of divine grace, to discern whether we are being called to the priesthood or consecrated life. Christ calling Peter … [Read more...]
What Happened to Catholic Ireland: An Irish-American Historian’s View
March 6, 2014 by John P. McCarthy, PhD
Just like the Church in the United States, the Irish Church is enduring hard times. However, what makes it so upsetting in Ireland ... is the disappearance of what had been a Catholic society. When first coming to Ireland more than a … [Read more...]
“Where your synthesis is, there lies your heart.” An Early Look at Pope Francis’ Vision for the Church
February 21, 2014 by Fr. Joseph A. Tetlow, SJ
Jesus Christ is the center – the driving source – of the entire Exhortation. Those who have been called, and have accepted Christ are sent into their particular life’s world to spread his name, and to do it joyfully. The sentence: “Wher … [Read more...]
A Liberationist Pope
February 7, 2014 by Dr. Michel Therrien, STD
Read carefully: We should see in this critique (by Pope Francis), not an embrace of socialism, or a condemnation of the market economy, but a call to adopt a different ethic for the marketplace. Pope Francis is a Jesuit, a prelate from … [Read more...]
The Papacy: The Person Versus The Office
February 3, 2014 by David Vincent Meconi
What draws the secular media to the Vatican ... (for now) is the man who is able to translate these truths into action, and to proclaim our doctrine with personal conviction. It is one of those few moments forever emblazoned on my mind … [Read more...]
1 Kings 13 and the Child of Isaiah 7: Precedence and the Numerology of Matthew’s Gospel
...(Pope Benedict's) last book, and his announcement of his retirement, were an affirmation of the Virgin Mary’s predestination, and her child’s virginal conception at the Annunciation. ... Pope Benedict had great trust in the continued mate … [Read more...]