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To my mind our position today is approaching something rather medieval. Hear me out. The constant talk of the novel coronavirus (and the synonyms we now use to describe our times: pandemic, epidemic, pestilence, etc.) has animated in my Catholic imagination references to the great plagues of the West. In fact, the Great Famine of 1315-1317 and the Black Death (bubonic plague) of 1347-1351 eviscerated Europe, causing the death of half the population by the most conservative estimates. Europe’s population would not recover until 1500. Further, the growing economic precarity of the United States calls to mind the political instability and economic turmoil that scholars refer to as “The Crisis of the Late Middle Ages.” What caused this crisis? The Black Death no doubt led to great political un...

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 6, 2020 / 05:00 pm MT (CNA).- After an official with the Society of St. Pius X told priests and staff they should speak with criminal investigators only in the presence of an attorney provided by the group, the group’s leaders say their message was not intended to suggest anyone should cover up alleged sex abuse. The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is a breakaway traditionalist group of priests and bishops with no official canonical status in the Church. Rev. Scott Gardner, bursar of the U.S. district of the SSPX, told staff and priests at St. Mary’s SSPX chapel and school in Kansas last weekend that they did not have to cooperate with state investigators of alleged child sex abuse. He added that employees and priest should speak to police only in the presence o...

By Tom Hoopes, August 6, 2020 The wind is raging, the waves are taller than the boat. The night seems never ending, and even Jesus isn’t calming the storm. Do you hunker down and go where the wind takes you? Do you grit your teeth and wait for the end? Or do you step out into the storm? That is the question the Gospel and readings ask us this Sunday, the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. The Gospel begins with Jesus sending people off to be alone. He sends the crowds away and sends the apostles across the lake. He needs to be alone to pray, and he needs his people to be alone to see how much they need him. They soon learn. A storm overcomes the apostles’ boat, and it is “tossed about by the waves” while “the wind was against it.” Since Peter’s boat is a symbol of the Church, not o...

ROME – For the whole Catholic world, August 15 means the Feast of the Assumption. In Italy, it also means ferragosto, the traditional summer holiday that sees the whole country head to either the beach or the mountains, or both, roughly from the second week of August until early September. Pope Francis, famously the pontiff of the “staycation,” isn’t going anywhere, but a good chunk of his workforce will be, which means there’s always a push in early August to flush things out of the Vatican pipeline before the August doldrums. Thursday brought a trio of appointments, rulings and decisions, all of which are of a piece with that time-honored tradition. They include: New appointments to the Council for the Economy, a body created by Francis in 2014 to oversee his financial reform. A ruling o...

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio – articles – email ) | Aug 03, 2020 Discouragement is a form of anger, the result of chronic suffering or its prospect, real or imagined. We’re often discouraged because of deep-seated personal problems, family difficulties, political turmoil, fear of the future, and so on. We look for easy answers, but answers usually don’t come easily. Of course, the remedy for discouragement is the practice of the Catholic faith. But what are the practical measures we can take? Here are a few tips for your consideration: Show up. Upon hearing of the death of John the Baptist, Jesus retired to a deserted place presumably to grieve for his cousin. But He didn’t allow his grief to distract Him from his duties. It fueled his compassion: He readily responded to the cro...