Patheos

The Catholic Church will sometimes seem to you to be full of human failure, incompetence, futility, fighting and frailty. But there is great treasure hidden in that muddy field.

Apostolic succession is more than the paperwork.

Cardinal Coccopalmerio Deacon Kandra reports here that Cardinal Coccopalmerio has suggested that Anglican orders may not be "absolutely null and utterly void" as declared by Pope Leo XIII. In a recent book he writes, "When someone is ordained in the Anglican Church and becomes a parish priest in a community, we cannot say that nothing [...]

Did you know that the full title of Our Lady of Fatima is "Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Fatima"? This is why at Our Lady of the Rosary Church we will be marking this year with special Masses and prayers. The Holy Father has granted the opportunity for  plenary indulgences for all those who [...]

The Holy Father Pope Francis exhorted us all to be better stewards of the earth's resources, and that is not only good Catholicism. Its good common sense. However, has anybody else noticed how Catholics who are keen on Earth Day seem to be taking their cues not from our Catholic tradition--which has a pretty good record [...]

"Mine O Thou Lord of Life. Send my roots rain." wrote G.M.Hopkins in a poignant sonnet that voiced his disappointment with life. It's here and worth a read. It came to mind when I was pondering from where true renewal comes in the Church. I'm now in my sixties and I've seen a new idea, a [...]

Pope Francis with some Lutherans As we approach the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation there are some voices in the Catholic Church calling us to celebrate this event. I certainly think it is possible, in an irenical spirit to commemorate the event, but what exactly is there in the Protestant Reformation that [...]

There is a funny sort of fideism around which is a popular form of a philosophical error. Fideism holds that faith is superior to reason and special knowledge can be had by faith alone which is superior and maybe even contradictory to that knowledge arrived at by reason. Pope St John Paul II knocked fideism and rationalism [...]

Wil Bernhard Did you know that college debt keeps a large number of men and women from pursuing their call to the priesthood and religious life? Most dioceses and religious orders expect their applicants to have a college degree, but that means the young men and women turn up with both a degree and [...]

iishtdr001p1 The weary old theory that Christianity is just paganism warmed up always circulates around this time of year. Armchair atheists like to point out the similarity between the word "Easter" and the Near Eastern goddess "Ishtar". The problem is, the myth of Ishtar had nothing to do with resurrection from the dead. She [...]