Thursday, January 31, 2019
How can we get more lay involvement?
As things stand, when it comes to decision-making, the laity are routinely excluded from even a consultative role.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
A Career, Not a Vocation
With their job security and higher ideals, the church and academia are both magnets for false prophets.
A Lack of Leadership
Monday, January 28, 2019
Conor Dugan Reviews Yves Chrion's Bugnini Book
Annibale Bugnini: Reformer of the Liturgy by Yves Chiron is indispensable both for its historical depth and breadth and also for understanding how we received the only liturgy that most Roman Catholics have ever experienced.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
MacIntyre on Marxism
The Next Two Parts of John Milbank's Series
Given this revisionary account of the development of natural law (click for previous instalment in this series) in western intellectual history, how does it relate to the story of...
Burke’s Romantic Restoration of Natural Law by John Milbank
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Ancient Faith Publishing Sale
All Ancient Faith Publishing books are 10% off! Combine with the free shipping coupon code WINTERSHIP (orders over $75) for the best deal of the season!
This sale and shipping offer end Sunday 1/27 at 11:59 PM CST. You must be signed into your account or have your address information completed before the shipping coupon code can be applied.
Friday, January 25, 2019
The World Needs Christ
Church Life: Renewing Nouvelle Théologie by Cyril O’Regan
Forgetfulness of God is a serious problem - without memory of God we cannot bless Him and thank Him for His manifold benefits. Is this forgetfulness, then, just an intellectual mistake, or is it one caused by sin? If the Latin churches had not first been internally weakened, and then lost to the modern nation-state, would there be a spiritual vacuum to be filled by some ideology? So what Latins have to offer the world in bringing Christ to it, after 50 years of a disastrous liturgical reform?
"And if there is a simple lesson to be drawn from the sprawling work of both de Lubac and Balthasar it may well be that misrememberers are far more dangerous to Christianity because in some lights they look just like it."
We are not talking about heresies but philosophical errors that do not fulfill man's heart, but feed upon sin and vice. what normal person claims to be a Hegelian or Nietzschean? Academics may pretend; there are those on the new right who claim to be followers of other philosophers, but they have rejected Christianity because of its perceived errors in its moral code.
Ressourcement Futures
Theology of Vocations
1Peter 5: On Discerning Vocations: How to Think about “States of Life” by Peter Kwasniewski
Pray Unceasingly
ABBOT GEORGIOS KAPSANIS OF GREGORIOU
Remembrance of God demonstrates communion with Him and is therefore like prayer. Striving to invoke the holy Name of Christ continuously, through the ...
Thursday, January 24, 2019
FAQ by Nicholas Denysenko on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Humani Generis and la Nouvelle Théologie,
See also Joseph Komonchak, Humani generis and “la ‘nouvelle théologie'”
More Responses to Constantinople
Primacy, Conciliarity and the Ecumenical Patriarchate by Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen)
The actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (EP) in its process of granting a Tomos of autocephaly to the schismatic groups in Ukraine have created a canonical crisis.
GETTING TO THE ESSENCE. A LOOK AT THE SCHISM THROUGH THE EYES OF PROFESSOR OSIPOV
Professor Alexei Osipov
The following is a translated transcript of a Spas (Savior) Orthodox TV channel special edition of their program, “Straight to the essence”. In these extremely disturbing times, people want to hear a familiar, trusted voice of experience and sound theology. Professor Osipov is that voice.
A Bit of a Stretch?
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
That There Is None Being Exercised to Deal with the Problem Properly
It is possible to come to the very edge of telling of falsehood, while still telling the technical truth. Church leaders have gotten very good at this.
Phyllis Zagano
The Imperial Episcopacy
What is the basis of thinking of a national (or political) grouping of churches as a "particular Church"?
What are the disadvantages of churches being organized along ethnic or political divisions? (And the advantages?)
Related:
Congregation for Clergy: PRIESTS IN THE EARLY CHURCH AND IN VATICAN II
Monday, January 21, 2019
Maybe He is an Italian in that Respect
Sandro Magister: Memo For the Summit On Abuse. For Francis, the Sins “Below the Belt” Are “the Lightest”
The Confession of Patriarch Dositheus of Jerusalem
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Who is corrupting Spain?
Happy that "Tender un puente" was launched in Zaragoza at the Centro Pignatelli, a faith and social justice center of the Jesuits. Estoy feliz de que se haya lanzado "Tender un puente" en Zaragoza en el Centro Pignatelli, un centro de justicia social y de la fe de los jesuitas.
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) January 19, 2019
"Tender un puente" is the Spanish-language translation of "Building a Bridge," about showing respect and welcome to LGBT Catholics.
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) January 19, 2019
"Tender un puente" es la traducción en español de "Building a Bridge"https://t.co/eqhjY4boGT pic.twitter.com/0ybDJ0bOa8
A friend wrote: "A room to overflow, with lots of varied people and beliefs, where two-thirds of the room were not 'the usual people.' Testimonies, invitations and challenges provoke spontaneous applause. But above all, a time for listening, meeting and to keep walking.” pic.twitter.com/ruEggCY0G1
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) January 19, 2019
More On the PCED Decision
The main issues facing the Vatican and the SSPX are doctrinal in nature, so it makes sense to have the principal organ for dialogue with the SSPX directly under the purview of the curial dicastery responsible for doctrine.
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Lord Have Mercy
Metropolitan Epiphanius Attends Presentation of Book, Dialogue Heals Wounds by Head of Ukrainian Catholic Church His Beatitude Sviatoslav
A Pedagogical Question
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware on Synodality and Primacy
From the Keynote Address by Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware of Diokleia) at the IOTA Inaugural Conference, 9-12 January 2019 in Iasi, Romania
Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware)
What is the aim of every council? It is, through the exercise of collective discernment, to attain a common mind. Yet this common mind is not simply the sum total of the convictions of the various participants.
At the Pskov Caves Monastery, Elder Hippolytus absorbed the monastic tradition of both the Valaam and the Pskov Caves elders. They guided and taught by the example of their good deeds, which is much more effective than just verbal instructions.
Friday, January 18, 2019
St. Genevieve of Paris
Commemorated January 3/16
The next morning the holy Bishop presented her with a medallion engraved with a cross and asked her never to wear another ornament but the Ornament of God's Grace through the Holy Spirit.
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Written by a Latin Apologist
CWR Dispatch: New book addresses key questions about Church’s teaching authority by Paul Senz
“The impact of the Magisterium is powerfully felt today,” says apologist Jimmy Akin, author of Teaching With Authority, “as illustrated by stories constantly appearing in the media about what popes and bishops have said. “
The Society for Aristotelian Studies
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Believe it or not.
NCReg: Vatican Sets Course for February Abuse Summit by Edward Pentin
The meeting’s goal is to ensure bishops ‘clearly understand what they need to do to prevent and combat the worldwide problem of the sexual abuse of minors,’ a Vatican statement communicated.
Related: NCReg: Chilean Bishops Brief Pope Francis on Clergy Sexual Abuse
The heads of the country's bishops conference have a ‘very fraternal, interesting and fruitful meeting’ ahead of February's summit on protection of minors.
Edward Pentin
Curial Reform?
Not a total abolition of the Curia, or a reduction in its scope, but Francis wouldn't be the one to accomplish such a reform anyways.
Gil Bailie Reviews Antoine Arjakovsky's What Is Orthodoxy?
French historian Antoine Arjakovsky has written a penetrating exploration of the struggle to keep or restore Christian unity and his own intimations of how that effort might bear more fruit.
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Various sources are being heard from the Vatican saying two pontifical maneuvers are imminent, which will take the form of two motu proprio. The first will be to decree the elimination of the Prefecture of the Papal Household. The prefecture …
Archbishop Viganò Was Right in His Recommendation
Sandro Magister: Francis and Sexual Abuse. The Pope Who Knew Too Much
CWR Interview with John Bergsma
Don’t know much about the Old Testament? Here’s the book for you. by Carl E. Olson
“We wanted to write an Introduction that presupposed the truth of the Catholic Faith from the outset,” says Dr. John S. Bergsma, co-author with Dr. Brant Pitre of A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament, “and would explore where that would lead in interpretation.”
Taylor Marshall Seems to Get It
Monday, January 14, 2019
More on the Holy See Press Office
The appointments of four new staff at the Holy See Press Office follow months of unheeded requests for help.
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Whose Synod?
From the "Youth Synod" of a few months ago.
Anyways... His Beatitude Sviatoslav: Unity of Catholics and Orthodox is not utopian thinking
R. R. Reno on Karl Rahner
After Vatican II, Karl Rahner was everywhere in demand. He knew the doctrinal tradition inside and out. Those trained in accord with the earlier Thomism could put his new approach, “transcendental theology,” into familiar mental slots—post-Kantian anthropology became the foundational philosophy in the place of Aristotelian metaphysics, but otherwise the scholastic architecture remained intact. Rahner was in that sense a manualist. New building materials, but the same structure. This accounted, in part, for his postconciliar ascendancy.
It seems his star has fallen. During a recent visit to Rome, I briefly ventured back into the classroom, lecturing to seminarians on Rahner’s introductory textbook, Foundations of Christian Faith. During the Q&A, it became clear that the priests-in-training thought Rahner useless. After class one asked, “In the end, wasn’t he a heretic?” I’m no fan of Rahner’s, but I admit to being taken aback by that question!
Rahner was not a heretic. But his theology falters, largely because he assumes that the primary language of faith—Scripture, liturgy, and the ancient creeds—lacks spiritual power. His was a project of translation. He took what he regarded as the dead idioms of the past (“Christ rose from the dead”) and restated them in what he imagined to be the vital idioms of the present (“transcendental hope in the resurrection”). As is too often the case with theologians chasing cultural relevance, his formulations were already out of date when Foundations was published in the mid-1970s.
I’ve read a lot of Karl Rahner and learned a great deal. He opens up the logic of doctrine, often with exquisite dexterity. But his basic project was always doomed. As one of my teachers, George Lindbeck, observed, in good theology, Scripture absorbs the world, not the world Scripture. What the original witnesses to Christ say is always more vivid and radiant with divine truth than any translation into contemporary parlance.
He also talks about the pontificiate of Francis: A Failing Papacy
Saturday, January 12, 2019
A Weak Defense of the Process
Church Life: The Political Pawning of Saints written by J.M. Hogue
Two from Phil Lawler
Last week the Vatican acknowledged that an Argentine bishop working at the Vatican faces sex-abuse charges. The story drew little attention from American media outlets, and understandably so: just one more in a long line of complaints against clerics, in this case involving a bishop whose name...
Pope’s message to US bishops: what NOT to do
In November, Pope Francis instructed the Catholic bishops of the US to table their plans for new responses to the sex-abuse scandal. Now, in his letter to the American bishops who are on retreat at Mundelein seminary this week, the Pontiff exhorts them to take action—but not, apparently,...
An Interview with Schema-Archimandrite Iliy (Nozdrin)
An autobiographical interview with Schema-Archimandrite Iliy (Nozdrin)
Restoration of Communion among Ukrainians in the Future?
OrthoChristian: UKRAINIAN SCHISMATICS AND UNIATES HOPE TO CREATE SINGLE PATRIARCHATE IN COMMUNION WITH BOTH ROME AND CONSTANTINOPLE, SAYS UNIATE HEAD
From 2015 I Believe
Mark Bauerlein Interviews Fr. Thomas Guarino
CONVERSATIONS WITH MARK BAUERLEIN
by Mark Bauerlein
Friday, January 11, 2019
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Good luck with that.
Human Rights and the Truth About Man: The Universal Declaration at 70 V. Bradley Lewis
COMMENTARY: It remains a task for Catholic defenders of human rights to show that a fully adequate understanding of human rights is not possible without an understanding of the truth about man, which is also the truth about God.
Fr. John Cush on Jacques Maritain
Maritain’s thought, based on the perennial wisdom on Saint Thomas Aquinas, can be a guide in helping the Church to instruct the world in the way of truth.
Wednesday, January 09, 2019
The Secret of Benedict XVI
We have already published a review of Antonio Socci’s new book, The Secret of Benedict XVI: Why He Is Still Pope, written by our Italian translator, Giuseppe Pellegrino. Pellegrino has returned, in a fashion, offering an English translation of Professor Roberto de …
Interview with Cardinal Brandmüller
“I would argue,” says that German prelate, 90, “the real scandal is that when it comes to this issue, clergy and employees of the Church are not sufficiently distinguishable from society overall.”
Still of the "First-Wave Good, Second-Wave Bad" Mindset
Which class of Vox's socio-sexual hierarchy is most likely to produce white knights?
We need a new Counter-Reformation in sacred art and architecture. What was the Reformation’s effect? First, it preached iconoclasm, the rejection of the human figure in religious art. Second, it [...]
SJWs Won't Rest Until They've Achieved Moral Purity
Rod Dreher: The John Finnis Line In The Sand
One of world’s leading Christian scholars faces call for expulsion from classroom because of orthodox views on homosexuality
Tuesday, January 08, 2019
A Shocker
Dreher: Celebrity Priest Was a Groper
I think he had a website before, too. It no longer exists.
Related
What is Opus Dei? A CNA Explainer
New Vision of Science
A review of Transfiguration: Notes Towards a Radical Catholic Reimagination of Everything by Michael Martin
Monday, January 07, 2019
Much Needs to Be Revisited
By what authority does an ecumenical council have to establish patriarchates as having a juridical status, if bishops are equal? Was this locus of authority something handed upon by the apostles, or was it established instead by human/ecclesial positive law? And if the latter, was it just? Can it be abrogated or declared null or invalid? On what basis should autocephaly be granted to a grouping of local Churches? (Or a patriarchate be established?) On the basis of nation? Or of political entities?
Watching the Outlaw King I am reminded of the disputes over authority and contests for power. How can the church be free from such struggles without humility and penance?
Sunday, January 06, 2019
Saturday, January 05, 2019
Patriarch Bartholomew Signs the Tomos
Patriarch Bartholomew: «Prince Vladimir and Saint Olga are present in spirit and prayer, sharing our joy and pleasure»
Petro Poroshenko at the ceremony of signing the Tomos: At last, God has bestowed the Orthodox Church of Ukraine upon us
KYIV Post
Livestream
Livestream continued
Union of Orthodox churches in Ukraine a cause for rejoicing by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille
Orthodoxy in Ukraine has been granted full autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarch, even as the Russian Orthodox are dismissive and critical of the union.
Related:
Kirill: Bartholomew no longer the ecumenical patriarch of all Orthodoxy by Vladimir Rozanskij
Metropolitan Ioann to head Russian Orthodox in Europe
eBook: “Working well, working for love”
At a higher level is the figure of the “homo faber,” the person who works with a wider view, with the aim of making a business or a project a success – sometimes seeking personal affirmation, but often with the noble aspiration of serving others and serving society as a whole.
And so what political theology or political wisdom does Opus Dei offer to lay people so that they can discern how to serve political society, or whether they live in a political society at all?
Friday, January 04, 2019
Feser Responds to Finnis
John Finnis is a prominent Catholic law professor and chief apostle of the “new natural law theory” (NNLT) invented by the late Germain Grisez in the 1960s. At Public Discourse, Finnis and I have been [...]
More on the Lord's Prayer
St. Benedict begins his Rule, “Hearken O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart.” This fundamental principle shapes not only the life [...]
Another for Latin Conspiracy Theorists
Il segreto di Benedetto XVI. Perché è ancora papa Antonio Socci RIZZOLI 146 pages Language: Italian only $10.99 Kindle Editor’s Introduction: It is a work already being discussed in Catholic circles around the world despite the fact that it is …
Related: Pope Benedict Has Spoken on Questions Regarding His Abdication… by Steve Skojec
…and he did it back in 2014. I had forgotten about this letter he wrote to La Stampa, because at the time, the theory that he had not truly abdicated was a quiet one. And it was before I started …
Rise of the Benevacantists: Who Is Pope? by Ryan Grant
The papacy of Pope Francis has set many new bars for the Church. Many of us, who are faithful Catholics, have been shocked and dismayed as he appointed heterodox clergy and prelates; promulgated highly ambiguous documents that appear to challenge …
Elsewhere...
CRC: THE APPEAL FROM THE POPE TO THE POPE : FATHER DE NANTES’ “ GREAT AFFAIR ”
The prestigious Pantheon-Sorbonne University organised on March 30 and 31, 2017, a colloquium devoted to “The deposition of a Pope – loci theologiae, canonical models and constitutional issues.” With exceptional intellectual honesty, our Father was presented in it as the only theologian who had succeeded in defining and implementing a modern canonical procedure for the case of a Pope who would have deviated from the doctrine of the Catholic Faith.