One of the controversies that troubled the early church and still divides Christians today is the full understanding and acceptance of the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Folks who say doctrine doesn't matter and "All that really matters is how much you love Jesus" miss the obvious previous question, "Yes, but who is Jesus?" In [...]
There is a certain type of non-Catholic Christian warrior who populates X-Twitter with challenges to the Catholic doctrines and devotions with "Where is THAT in the Bible?" This challenge is understandable given the Protestant's foundational belief in sola Scriptura--the Protestant trust in the Bible alone. Given that underlying belief it is understandable that many elements of [...]
We don’t know much about St Matthias except that one of the first things Peter does in the Acts of the Apostles is to get the others together to select a successor to Judas. Thus the foundation of what we know as “apostolic succession” is established as one of the foundational acts of the Apostles in [...]
Those who favor change in the Catholic Church keep calling for "more discussion" about the ordination of women. We have now had four popes definitively state that the order of priest is to be limited to men: Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. Discussion has ended and it is decided. However, proponents of [...]
Controversy swirls about the Jesuit artist Marko Rupnik who has been accused of the most vile kind of sex-magic abuse. I wrote about sex magic abuse here in case you're wondering what it is. Rupnik's mosaics adorn many prominent modern Catholic Churches around the world from the pope's own chapel to cathedrals and churches at important [...]
When I served as a high school chaplain the enforcement of the dress code brought back memories of my own adolescent attitude to rules, restrictions and regulations. If those in authority tried to assert their authority by imposing rules and regulations the adolescent mind immediately finds ways to get around it--to subvert the authorities and to [...]
The longer I am a Catholic (or maybe it is just advancing age) the more suspicious I am of superstition in religion. Don't get me wrong. I don't think Catholics are any more superstitious than any other group of religious people --in fact I think they are probably less superstitious. Nevertheless superstition in religion runs deep amongst Catholics--as [...]
On social media this week some of our Protestant brothers have been using this story of St Dismas--the repentant thief who was crucified with Jesus--to take some pokes at the Catholic Church teaching. "You Catholics say baptism and Eucharist and good works are necessary for salvation, but what about the Good Thief huh? All he had [...]
Social media was buzzing this week in reaction to a ludicrous article at the National Catholic Reporter about a church in Ohio which was handed over to the traditionalist Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. Apparently the traditionalists dismantled a wooden "Vatican II altar" and an older member of the parish is unhappy. What is [...]
Heresies are like weeds. They keep coming back. The thing is, they come back in different guises. In the fourth century Arianism was part of the great debate over the divinity of Christ and therefore the definition of the Holy Trinity. Arianism developed into not just a theological problem, but a major schism. The Arians had [...]