The dogma of Purgatory is an all-but-forgotten teaching of the Church, yet it is extremely valuable in supporting the call to perfection. The fundamental purpose of Purgatory is not forgiveness of sins, but making up for sins, reparation. … [Read more...]
Archives for 2018
Natural and Supernatural Faith
November 14, 2018 by R. Thomas Richard, PhD
Introduction Well-formed Catholics know that we are infused at baptism with sanctifying grace and with the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Some know that these virtues reside in potency, and not automatically in actuality. … [Read more...]
Reform Requires Holiness of All the Faithful
November 14, 2018 by Richard P. Maggi, Esq.
The wounds of the Church’s sex-abuse scandals have been reopened by the revelations of abuse by Cardinal McCarrick, the former Washington D.C. archbishop; by the Chilean scandal, the Pennsylvania grand jury report, and more recently perhaps … [Read more...]
Complain, Complain!
There Are Reasons for Poor Music at Mass
November 14, 2018 by Bill Kassel
Professor Anthony Esolen, writer in residence at Thomas More College of the Liberal Arts, recently wrote an essay for the Catholic magazine Crisis in which he complained about the quality of music at Mass. He’s certainly not alone in his … [Read more...]
Five Tips for Graduate School
November 14, 2018 by Sr. Maria Catherine Toon, OP
During my first semester of graduate school in theology, the required class on the Trinity nearly “ate my lunch”. To put it simply, I could never study enough to understand the subject more, nor could I seem to improve my papers enough to el … [Read more...]
Homilies for November 2018
October 31, 2018 by Fr. Michael Berry, OCD
For Nov. 4, Nov. 11, Nov. 18, and Nov. 25. 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time – November 4, 2018 Readings: Dt 6:2-6 • Ps 18:2–4, 47, 51 • Heb 7:23–28 • Mk 12:28b–34 usccb.org/bible/readings/110418.cfm Our first reading from Deuterono … [Read more...]
My Jesus, Where Do You Live?
John 1:38 and the Trinitarian Intimacy of Christian Discipleship
October 29, 2018 by Fr. Brice Higginbotham
Introduction In John 1:38, Andrew and another disciple pose the following question to Jesus: “Rabbi, where do you live [Gk. méno]?” What do they mean? Certainly, on one level, they want to indicate their desire to come under the tutelage of … [Read more...]
The Inseparable Unitive and Procreative Purposes of Marriage — and Appropriate NFP Use
October 29, 2018 by Anne Cherney
In 1946, theologian Fr. Mathias Scheeben’s The Mysteries of Christianity appeared and therein he wrote of married couples, “They can rightfully unite with each other in matrimony only for the end which Christ pursues in His union with the Ch … [Read more...]
The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the New Evangelization
October 29, 2018 by Deacon Peter Trahan, MATh
Is the New Evangelization still relevant? The assured answer is a resounding Yes! However, it has fallen out of favor as a pastoral movement, fallen under the weight of its own branding. Given its origins as the overarching thesis of the … [Read more...]
Is There Such a Thing as Episcopally Sanctioned Adultery?
The Attack on Marriage, Morality, and the Eucharist
October 29, 2018 by Jeffrey Tranzillo
Prior to the publication of Amoris Laetitia (hereafter AL) in March 2016, certain influential German bishops had a direct hand in persuading a willing Pope Francis to incorporate a subjectivistic view of conscience and discernment into the … [Read more...]
The Doctors of Ravenna
Peter Chrysologus and Peter Damien
October 29, 2018 by Fr. Benjamin Roberts
The city of Ravenna boasts two Doctors of the Church named Peter: the fifth-century bishop of Ravenna, Peter Chrysologus, and the eleventh-century cardinal bishop from Ravenna, Peter Damian. The earlier Chrysologus is honored each year in … [Read more...]
Alexis de Tocqueville, Subsidiarity, and Clericalism
October 29, 2018 by Fr. Charles Klamut
One of my proudest accomplishments in college was reading Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1830s masterpiece on what really made “democracy” work here, after so many near-misses or never-starts in history. The book was assigned … [Read more...]
Homilies for October 2018
October 2, 2018 by Fr. John Eckert
For Oct. 7, Oct. 14, Oct. 21, and Oct. 28. 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time – October 7, 2018 Readings: Gn 2:18–24 • Ps 128:1–6 • Heb 2:9–11 • Mk 10:2–16, or 2–12 usccb.org/bible/readings/100718.cfm I’ve always been rather put off by … [Read more...]
Love’s Oblation
October 2, 2018 by Carolyn Humphreys, OCDS
William L. Stidger told about a young lad he had baptized as a baby. The boy grew up, and when World War II began, he joined the Navy. One night his ship came into Boston, and the lad visited his former pastor and friend. During their visit … [Read more...]
Renewal and the Penitential Life
October 2, 2018 by Monsignor Jeffrey A. Ingham
Wherever we may look for solutions to the present tension and confusion, we must realize that the solution will begin with the Eucharist, return to the Eucharist, and be formed by the Eucharist. Whatever secular processes may be deemed … [Read more...]
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