The other day I indulged in a bit of a rant against the mainstream Bible scholars who have made an industry of de-bunking the gospels and trying to show them to be late compositions written by anonymous authors to add mythological magical details to the story of Jesus the peasant preacher from Galilee. I received this [...]
I was received into the full communion of the Catholic Church over thirty years ago. I had been brought up in a conservative fundamentalist home, became and Anglican, went to Oxford to study theology, was ordained and served in the Church of England for fifteen years before "coming home to Rome." I then worked for seven [...]
This week the leaders of GAFCON - the Global Anglican Future Conference-- declared their organization to be the Anglican Communion. Severing the historic ties to Canterbury and the Church of England, the leaders of GAFCON have declared that they have not "left the Anglican Communion" instead they ARE the Anglican Communion. What is GAFCON? It began [...]
It is now thirty years since I resigned as a priest of the Church of England to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. I was one of nearly 800 Anglican priests who resigned at that time over the crisis of authority in the Anglican Church brought on by the Church of England's decision to [...]
When I was a high school chaplain I used to explain to the kids that a sin was not just something that made you feel bad. Often I'd get folks in the confessional who would "confess" that they were angry with another person. Anger is not necessarily a sin. The Bible says "Be angry but sin [...]
Frederich Nietzsche In the musical Oklahoma! Ado Annie and Will Parker sing, “With Me It’s All or Nuthin’ is it All or Nuthin’ With You?” I like to imagine the duet being sung by Thérèse of Lisieux and Friedrich Nietzsche. I can just see the sweet little French girl and the skinny German with [...]
Today’s feast day for St Jerome falls happily the day before the feast of St Therese of Lisieux. St Therese said, “How different are all the saints! In heaven the greatest doctor of the church will sit down with a little child.” So it is with these two. St Jerome–the cave dweller and patron of all [...]
This is my favorite time of the year. Not only is the beginning of Autumn the most beautiful season, but I love this ten days in the church calendar: St Michael, St Jerome, St Therese, St Francis, St Faustina, Our Lady of the Rosary. I was pleased to see therefore that Pope Leo has called on us [...]
From time to time I hear criticisms of Catholic priests and bishops: Well meaning Catholics want us to speak out more against the wickedness in our society. Sometimes the critics are conflating their political opinions with the gospel and when they want us to speak out they mean they want us to bolster their political opinions. [...]
We use the word martyr pretty lightly these days. Any victim might become a martyr and some unworthy people (or their defenders) have sought to magnify certain victims and, if possible, turn them into martyrs in order to further a political or personal agenda. There are two definitions of martyr that might be applied to Charlie [...]