Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

I'm surprised gravitas hasn't been condemned yet



Presbyter...

Words from St. Justin and St. Theophan the Recluse.

Transfiguration of Our Saviour Greek Orthodox Church, Florence, South Carolina

website

Interesting attempt to inculturate the temple architecture to its South Carolina environment. Colonial/neo-classical style?

Monday, December 12, 2016

Bishop Javier Echevarria Has Passed

CNA: Leader of Opus Dei dies at 84

OpusDei.org
Reflections on the Christmas Crèche

Sin Cripples

Fr. Z links to a Regina interview with Edward Petin regarding Pope Francis. He also links to an open letter by the two major NNL theorists, John Finnis and Germain Grisez, to Pope Francis regarding Amoris Laetitia, made available by First Things.

Catholic Herald Online

It's not the first time that Germain Grisez has written publicly about/to Pope Francis.

Схиархимандрит Гавриил Бунге Встреча с читателями

Saturday, December 10, 2016

FORMED

CWR: Fast-growing "FORMED" program harnesses the power and reach of "the new Roman road" {GIVEAWAY}

Insight Scoop: Fast-growing "FORMED" program harnesses the power and reach of "the new Roman road"

Seems like the rising stars in American Roman Catholic apologetics and catechesis, Timothy Gray, Brent Pitre are more focused on Sacred Scripture than using the Fathers or recovering the Patristic tradition -- outreach to the Protestants? The influence of Catholic reverts and Protestant converts? So what form of Roman Catholicism will be reformed? A new Spring in America or was an opportunity lost in the postconciliar era? Is it accurate to say that the influence of Ressourcement theology in the United States is marginal?

official website and FB

Interview with Nikola Sarić



NLM on the icon

Metropolitan Hilarion in Rome

Papal Rights Talk

Latin Religious Orders and the Question of Identity

What if SJWs were to attack Jesuits and their educational institutions for the crime of destroying (or failing to respect) native cultures in their missionary efforts. After all, inculturation was still a means to bringing Christianity to other peoples -- the SJWs could claim that Christianity was nonetheless forced upon them, and thus their original non-Christian culture was destroyed. The Jesuits should have instead recognized that truth is to be found in every culture. Would the Jesuits surrender to the SJWs? I was thinking of the recent controversy surrounding Providence College as well -- couldn't SJWs object to the Dominicans being in charge because of their association with the Inquisition and the suppression of the Albigensians, who should have been free to believe whatever they wanted. Perhaps capitulation on the question of the use of the "Western" canon in a liberal education would not be enough for them.

The Jesuits are already doing whatever they can to accomodate multiculturalism; the Dominicans have shown some resistance at Providence College but it is not clear that the administration will be able to defend their preference for the Western intellectual tradition. Can Dominicans be "nation-less" while at the same time upholding the Western intellectual tradition as being an important part of Roman Catholicism? How can they do so if Roman Catholicism is not Western but aspires to some sort of univeralism? What relation do American Jesuits and Dominicans have to Western/European identity? And how can they take a stand on the question without alienating one group (Anglo-Americans and those identify with them) or the other (those who reject that identity)? Would they understand that any sort of compromise solution (in the direction of multiculturalism) is nonetheless a failure at the political level? Can they pretend to remain above ethnonationalism even if they believe they must be so for the sake of preaching the Gospel? (And if that were their ultimate justification, is it the case that their educational endeavors are a necessary part of that?)

In Christendom it could be possible for members of international religious orders to identify as being part of a united Christendom with a common language (Latin) and culture (even if the Holy Roman Empire never achieved political unification). They could still be attentive to the differences of local cultures and peoples. (Did they or the Church in general do anything to resist the homogenization of language and culture that accompanied nationalism and the rise of the modern nation-state?)

If peoples are determined to separate, should they stand in the way or preach a (non-existent) duty for them to stay together? It is proper for missionaries to assimilate to whatever people they wish to evangelize (in so far as it is morally possible for them to do so), but religious orders cannot have a multicultural university without destroying the university as such. They must either create an alternative institution or acquiesce to the fact that the university cannot serve those who reject its mission of passing on a particular intellectual tradition and culture.


A Recent Public Appearance of Archimandrite Gabriel Bunge





Consecration of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Paris





(via Byz, TX)

Tuesday, December 06, 2016

What Manner of Interfaith Dialogue?

Another Jubilee Year

What's the health of this religious order?



First Advent Sermon







And a LC speaks on the EF.

Holy Nicholas





The One Thing Needful

Rorate Caeli: Don Pietro Leone: Cheerfulness
Chiesa: New Appeal to the Pope. The Catholic Doubts of “The New York Times”

In California the bishop of San Diego, a favorite of Bergoglio, admits de facto divorces and remarriages, as in any Protestant church. From the news arises the question: Can “Amoris Laetitia” be interpreted this way, too?

Monday, December 05, 2016

But will it teach men how to lead?

CWR Dispatch: Holy League Men's Conference to feature noted speakers, challenging messages
Held in Salem, Oregon, the December 16-17 conference will include Mass and homily by Abp. Alexander Sample, and talks by Dn. Harold Burke Sivers, Fr. Donald Calloway, Jesse Romero, and others.

Carl E. Olson, editor of Catholic World Report, will give a talk titled "The Vocation of Sons by Grace", which will focus on the divine call for every man to be, by virtue of baptism, a prophet, priest, and king. The talk, says Olson, will highlight themes found in Called To Be the Children of God: The Catholic Theology of Human Deification, which he co-edited with Fr. David Meconi, SJ. "Drawing on Scripture and the Fathers," says Olson, "I will emphasize the truly radical gift of divine sonship and show how it relates to our everyday lives as men, husbands, and fathers." True men of God, he adds, "see and understand this life in the light of supernatural, Trinitarian grace and our call to share that grace with our families, friends, and everyone we encounter".

Saturday, December 03, 2016

Faith and Works

St. Francis Xavier

The Field: Cultivating Salvation

St. Andrew the Apostle

Friday, December 02, 2016

Analogia

Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration

More on Deaconesses

The Mind of Christ

Liberty

A 6 Minute Tour

Pray Tell: Book on Deaconesses (in Greek)

Nicholas Denysenko

Orthodox theologians devoted to restoring the order of deaconess have published a book on the ordination of deaconesses and the question of women in ordained ministry dedicated to the Patriarch of Alexandria. This news is significant as it demonstrates that interest in and research on the deaconess is of international concern, and not merely a […]

St. Thomas's Commentary on the Book of Job

Fr. Schall on the Controversy

The “Concern” by Rev. James V. Schall, S.J.

Thursday, December 01, 2016

Purity Laws for the Reception of Communion?

"Physical preparednes"... the Copts. (via Byz, TX)

The Papacy a Source of Division

CWR: On the Cardinals Critical of the Pope: The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Fears Polarization
Cardinal Müller: The Cardinals’ letter is directed to the Pope personally—but the Pope could commission the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “to mediate the differences of opinion ad hoc.”
CWR Staff

Another solution?

A New Council, Like Sixteen Centuries Ago
The conflicts set into motion today by “Amoris Laetitia” have a precedent in the Christological controversies of the late Roman empire. They were resolved by the ecumenical council of Chalcedon. From Chile, one scholar proposes that the same journey be made again

Didn't the last Catholic synod lead to the current situation?

The Liturgy of the Faithful

What is the Ethiopian Feast of the Miraculous Medal?

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

What Distinction in Roles is Defended?

Crisis: It’s Time to Rehabilitate St. Aloysius by Thomas J. Craughwell (via Fr. Z)

Julia Flyte and Charles Ryder Could Have Had a Happy Ending!

If only Evelyn Waugh had lived to the pontificate of Pope Francis and written Brideshead Revisited now. Then they could have gotten "married" and received Holy Communion and been good Catholics and lived happily ever after!

So have they tried to re-interpret the story of the Samaritan woman at the well? She could have remraried too, Christ was understanding and merciful!

Pope Francis's non-response from a few weeks ago; he hasn't given any other response to the dubia since then. Francis: “The Church is not a football team in search of fans”

Fr. Spadaro Comments

Edward Peters: Cardinals in the Church have rights too

Today:
The Four Cardinals and the Encyclical in the Room
The essential questions remain what they have always been: "what is freedom and what is its relationship to the truth contained in God's law? what is the role of conscience in man's moral development?"
By Carl E. Olson

Related:
Full text: Cardinals’ letter to Pope Francis on Amoris Laetitia

Prayer: The Mirror of the Soul

Monday, November 28, 2016

Sunday, November 27, 2016

St. Paul

Theotokos of the Sign

Today is the feast day of the miraculous icon of Novgorod. Icon Reader

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Friday, November 25, 2016

Eastern Christian Books: Papal Infallibility and Authority (Updated)

Eastern Christian Books: Papal Infallibility and Authority (Updated)

CWR Interview with Archbishop Chaput

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput on vocations, elections, apostolic exhortations by Jim Graves
If Amoris Laetitia "has elements that some serious Catholic scholars see as ambiguous," says the Archbishop of Philadelphia, "then the issues they raise need to be dealt with honestly and directly."
Rorate Caeli: De Mattei: Contradictions at the closing of the Jubilee

A Roman Question

Zenit Articles Featuring Thomas Spidlik

“Fasting is Prayer of the Body"
A Life Dedicated to Unity of Eastern and Western Christians
Benedict XVI Praises Theology-Art Link
Papal Address After Cardinal Spidlik's Funeral Mass
Pope Notes Contributions of Cardinal Spidlik

Related:
La mort du cardinal tchèque Tomáš Špidlík (2010)

Il card. Tomas Špidlík, un ponte ecumenico tra Oriente e Occidente

Pubblicato da Àncora il volume “Il cuore: l’uno e l’insieme. Il card. Špidlík tra Oriente e Occidente”, a cura del sacerdote Franco Nardin con il sostegno di padre Marko Rupnik e del Centro Aletti

A Visit Earlier this Week

St. Theodoret of Cyrus on the Eucharist

Mass as Sacrifice? A Voice from the 5th Century by Markus Tymister

While St. Theodoret's explanation is correct (and who would be offended? even Latin traditionalists would probably agree with it), it does not mean that the Pauline reform as carried by Bugnini and others was justifiable or correct.

Latin devotion to the Holy Family - what would Byzantines make of a piece such as this? While true on one level, can it be "re-calibrated" to Byzantine beliefs about the place of St. Joseph?
Liturgy and Chastity: The Pure-heartedness of Ministry

In both Joseph and Mary we see a single-heartedness, a purity of intent, a devotion to their child Yeshua bar Yussef, even before his birth. It is the very stuff that covenants, and vows, and ministries are made of. Their living of the beatitude “blessed are the pure in heart” does not mean that they were never confused, or were never afraid, or never doubted. Certainly they each had moments that we would all recognize as frail humanity in action. But in their love—of God, of their child, of each other—they also knew the fullness of Emmanuel, the God-with-them.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

The End of the Jubilee





Does the Patriarchate of Rome Really Need Another Synod?



Jesuit Pope and Jesuits



What a Mess

Bishop says four cardinals' letter could provoke schism

RT Interview with Patriarch Kirill

‘Western laws now clash with moral nature of man’ – Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill





The Divine Liturgy

Punishment and Reward

Eucharistia

The Readings in the Divine Liturgy

Russian Monasteries

Moses' Life

Variations in the Spiritual Life

A Thanksgiving Meditation on the Theotokos