George Weigel is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies. He is the author of over twenty books, including Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (1999), The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy (2010), and The Irony of Modern Catholic History: How the Church Rediscovered Itself and Challenged the Modern World to Reform. His most recent books are The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission (2020), Not Forgotten: Elegies for, and Reminiscences of, a Diverse …
Category: Apologetics
On Cardinal McElroy’s misguided “clarifications” on sin, sex, and conscience
Dr. Larry Chapp is a retired professor of theology. He taught for twenty years at DeSales University near Allentown, Pennsylvania. He now owns and manages, with his wife, the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Farm in Harveys Lake, Pennsylvania. Dr. Chapp received his doctorate from Fordham University in 1994 with a specialization in the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. He can be visited online at “Gaudium et Spes 22”. When I was a young seminarian I studied moral theology under the tutelage of the late, great Germain Grisez (1929-2018). I did not agree with all aspects of his “new natural law” theory, …
The Cardinal’s Lament: A Reply to His Reply
Dr. E. Christian Brugger is a moral theologian living in Front Royal, Virginia Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, in defending the morality of some instances of sex between LGBT and divorced and remarried Catholics, misrepresents conscience and proposes a non-Christian understanding of conversion, accompaniment, and discipleship. In his recent response to “critics on sexual sin, the Eucharist, and LGBT and divorced/remarried Catholics” Cardinal Robert W. McElroy defends the morality of some instances of sex between LGBT and divorced and remarried Catholics. I reply here to four problems with his defense: it proposes 1) a misleading conception of conscience; 2) a misrepresentation of the …
Preaching in a Time of Misdirecting Shepherds
Fr. Robert McTeigue, SJ, is a member of the US Eastern Province of the Society of Jesus. A professor of philosophy and theology, he has taught worldwide and is known for his classes in both rhetoric and medical ethics. He is a member of the National Ethics Committee of the Catholic Medical Association. His book on preaching, I Have Someone to Tell You: A Jesuit Heralds the Gospel is now available at Amazon in both paperback and electronic form. His latest books from Ignatius Press are Real Philosophy for Real People: Tools for Truthful Living (2020) and Christendom Lost and Found: Meditations for a Post-Post-Christian Era (2022). He is the …
The Fallibility of Popes, According to St. Paul and St. Gregory
Monsignor Antall is the pastor of Holy Name Parish in the Diocese of Cleveland. He is the author of The X-Mass Files (Atmosphere Press, 2021), and The Wedding (Lambing Press, 2019). The pope is infallible when declaring the truth of dogma under conditions that have been applied very strictly. The definition given at the First Vatican Council clearly implies those conditions: When the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that is, when in exercising his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians he defines with his supreme apostolic authority that a doctrine on faith and morals is to be held by the whole Church, through the …
You Need to Fast More
Suzan Sammons homeschools her children and is studying for a masters degree in nutrition. She is a writer and editor in southwest Ohio. Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving: the three calls of Lent. If I exhort you to spend more time in prayer during Lent, you probably won’t argue with me. If I encourage you to increase your charitable giving, most readers will admit they could be more generous. But if I ask you to fast more? I’ll hear that fasting makes you tired and grouchy, gives you a headache, and renders it impossible to complete your day’s work. St. …
The Genesis of the Novus Ordo and “Theological and Spiritual Flaws” of The Latin Mass
Janet E. Smith, Ph.D., is a retired professor of moral theology. The second essay in this series demonstrated that Cavadini, Healy, and Weinandy (CHW) misrepresented several key documents in respect to the liturgy as well as the views of Cardinal Ratzinger. This third essay shows that CHW provide no analysis of duplicitous methods used by Fr. Bugnini in the composition of the Novus Ordo Mass (NO), nor do they report how ambivalent Pope Paul VI was about the changes. Most seriously CHW speak of the traditional Latin Mass (TLM) as being theologically flawed and claim that it is clear that …
All You Need Is Love?
Fr. John A. Perricone, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor of philosophy at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. His articles have appeared in St. John’s Law Review, The Latin Mass, New Oxford Review, and The Journal of Catholic Legal Studies. He can be reached at frjohn1765@icloud.com. This past half-century or so has seen the word love dragged through the mud. Once a queen; now a harlot. No surprise that beneath this strain the word has lost its luster. Repeated blows have so flattened its majesty that it can mean anything; and thus, it means nothing. In the past few years, this emasculation has reached new …
Pope Francis’s Schism
Kennedy Hall is the author of two books, Terror of Demons: Reclaiming Traditional Catholic Masculinity and Lockdown with the Devil. He is a full-time journalist for LifeSiteNews and has a growing YouTube channel where he hosts The Kennedy Report. He is married with five children and lives in Ontario, Canada. At this point, it seems more than likely that as early as April 3, Pope Francis will be laying the hammer down on the Traditional Mass in a way that will restrict the liturgy of all our Latin-Rite ancestors that is almost as severe as what happened under Paul VI. In addition, it …
‘Dead Name’ — the Transgender Issue Affects Parents and the Whole Family
Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. is founder and president of the Ruth Institute, which helps the victims of the Sexual Revolution recover from their experiences and become advocates for positive change. Jennifer Roback Morse NationFebruary 1, 2023 Many people are becoming aware of the serious threat the transgender ideology poses to the health and well-being of children and families. Many are aware of the risks associated with medical interventions for minors in an attempt to change their gender presentation. Fewer people are aware of the impact of the ideology that has become a sort of cult on the shattering of families. The …