This report says that while the Vatican has yet to confirm the date, Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia has indicated that Pope Francis will visit the city for next September's World Meeting of Families. If the pope is planning to visit the City of Brotherly Love next fall what's the big deal? Kathy Schiffer reports here that the pope [...]
Architect Michael Tamara comments here on the closure of historic churches in the Northern cities of the US. His main point is that the churches were built by our ancestors who were much poorer than we are, but who had faith, knew how to work hard, and above all--were willing to make great sacrifices to build [...]
Yesterday's post was about the Fear of God, but today spend a few moments meditating on the Mercy of God because God's Mercy and his justice are never separated. They are two sides to the same coin. We often tend to think of God's justice as his punishment for sin. If we're not careful we imagine [...]
"The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Says the Proverb. The critics of Christianity like to say, "Oh, I would rather choose to do good than be forced to do good out of the fear of hell." That's very nice, but what usually happens is that they don't actually do much good because they [...]
The old debate still rages in which Catholics dispute with Protestants who say that salvation is by "faith alone." Yes, we like to pick out the verse from the epistle of James which says that "faith without works is dead." If we're going to talk the talk we have to walk the walk. Action speak louder [...]
"You shall have no other Gods before me." trumpets the Lord in the Old Testament. St Benedict puts it the other way, "Prefer nothing to the love of Christ." Elizabeth Scalia is a daughter of St Benedict--a Benedictine oblate, writer, wife and mother. Blogging at The Anchoress she's also one of the Patheosi--bloggers here from a variety [...]
The Anchoresses fumes over the latest "ordination" of a Catholic woman here. I cannot disagree. One of the things most offensive to anyone with a Catholic sensibility is the women priests' taste in vestments. These are not happy events. Ecclesiatical fashionista--Mantilla the Hon had a fair bit to say about it here. One of the things [...]
Having just finished Ralph Martin's excellent study on universalism, Will Many Be Saved? it leads me to wonder about this thing we call speculative theology. It seems to me that theologians may well speculate when sacred Scripture and church teaching is unclear about something, but in the matter of heaven, hell and salvation there is not really very [...]
...or how the sweet, but noxious atmosphere of universalism has undermined the Catholic Church's mission to the world. Ralph Martin is the Director of Graduate Theology Programs in the New Evangelization at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit. He is also President of Renewal Ministries and a consulter to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. In [...]
Someone has joked, "In Central America it's not really a valid Mass unless there is a dog present." I was therefore amused to see that at one of the Pope's liturgies in Brazil a stray dog wandered onto the stage. For five years I took some American high school kids to El Salvador on a mission trip. [...]