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VATICAN CITY — One of the persistent criticisms of the final assembly of the Synod on Synodality has been that, despite its frequent emphasis on listening and dialogue, several relevant and important voices went unheard. In his final assessment of the synod, George Weigel identified some of these voices as happily married couples, Catholic educators resisting today’s “woke” culture, and healthcare professionals living a culture of life. But another group conspicuous by its absence were those faithful who value the traditional liturgy and apostolic tradition — a small but flourishing group both in terms of vocations and Church attendance but currently the subject of sweeping Vatican restrictions since Pope Francis’ 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes. During the worldwide consultation ph...

By Clement Harrold November 1, 2024 1) He is the first and greatest of the four major prophets. Standing at the head of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, Isaiah’s writings constitute the single most important prophetic book of the Old Testament. His theological vision is expansive, and it has exerted an enormous influence over subsequent Jewish and Christian theology. 2) His book is known as the fifth Gospel. While this title is often applied to the Holy Land, the Church Fathers also used it to describe the book of Isaiah! More than any other prophet, Isaiah points forward time and again to Christ. Appropriately, therefore, the book of Isaiah is second only to the Psalms in being the biblical book most quoted in the New Testament. 3) His writings can be split into two (or three) parts. The au...

Here are six main points about the story of the scribe asking Jesus to name the greatest commandment on the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B — taken from my podcast episode on the subject and previous “This Sunday” pieces on this site. First: This question came at an exhausting time of questioning for Jesus. The question from the scribe about the commandments comes after a number of challenges to Jesus on the week he died. First, Herodians and Pharisees and Sadducees tried to trap him with tough questions, and Jesus did verbal jiu jitsu to win each time while teaching something important. But that isn’t what happens here, in the Gospel of Mark. This is a fair question from a good guy — a scribe who is genuinely searching for answers. I always picture him as a young man who is de...

While the Christian faith is grounded in the here and now, it is only fully understood and valued when it is placed and lived in the light of eternity. While many blessings can be received by God’s grace in this life, none of them compares to the heavenly glory won for us in Jesus Christ. No earthly blessing, however emotionally satisfying or physically pleasurable, can come even close to the eternal life offered to us in the Lord Jesus. St. Paul gives testimony to the unimaginable joy that awaits those who love God: “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’ — these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-1...

Last night, court reports, and fly away home Skip to content Pillar subscribers can listen to Ed read this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DR Happy Friday friends, And a glorious feast of All Saints to you all. Halloween yesterday was something of an odd event for us in our house. My wife, being a Londoner, takes an outsider’s view of the whole affair, generally treating it with skepticism but open to anything involving our kid dressing up. I, on the other hand, spent the first 10 years of my life living in a John Hughes movie, so my childhood memories of the night are vivid and cinematic and fermented in decades of nostalgia from living abroad. Our daughter is barely three years old, so this was her first outing with any real sense of what’s going on. She liked the costume and, like all l...

English[embedded content] Spanish[embedded content] “Celebrating the International Day of Religious Freedom: Guarantee of Human Rights and the Common Good” was organized by the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the Organization of American States. Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews Entertainment blogs & Forums

On an unseasonably warm October afternoon in the Witch City, America’s unofficial Halloween capital, thousands of people are passing by a lay Catholic street preacher. Some are wearing skin-tight black skeleton costumes, others vampire hoods and makeup, and some look like demons. Most are revelers, celebrating Halloween a little early. But others have intense looks on their faces, as if this is game day. The preacher, Anthony Correnti, 35, isn’t in costume. Instead, he’s wearing a black T-shirt that says “Need Prayer?” He stands on a granite wall on Essex Street with a microphone in his right hand. Near a black two-and-a-half-foot-high Sony speaker is a sign with a Divine Mercy image of Jesus and the magic-markered words “He Has Risen.” Below that is another sign, also in red and blue magi...

I like Luce Skip to content Pillar subscribers can listen to JD read this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DR Hey everybody, First things first. I like Luce. I think she’s a fun piece of pop art with accessible symbolism, and I hope they retail a funko pop version of her so I can buy one for my kids. And if you’ve spent the last 24 hours posting online that Luce is a symbol of everything wrong with contemporary Catholicism, I think you should take a breath and chill out a little bit. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Luce is the cartoon mascot of the Church’s upcoming 2025 jubilee year, in which Catholics are invited to become pilgrims, receiving a “Jubilee indulgence” by going to confession, receiving the Eucharist, praying for the pope, and by making a pilgrimage — either to the b...

Share via: Nora has also shared her testimony on Signposts and The Journey Home. ***** I grew up in the beautiful mountains of Colorado with loving parents. We were not religious at all; in fact, our family had an anti-Christian attitude. I believed in an impersonal God and had a deep devotion to angels, though I am not sure where those beliefs originated. My parents worked hard to provide for my brother and me, and they instilled in us a strong sense of right and wrong. We were a tight-knit family. Wicca, a Family Affair When I was 11 years old, my brother and I were playing in our yard. We stumbled upon a stone circle we had never noticed before; the stones and the circle were clearly placed by human hands, in a pattern that pointed to their ritualistic purpose. Thinking satanists must h...

Phyllis Zagano is well-known as one of the biggest advocates for female deacons in the Catholic Church. However, she has shown a lack of understanding the concept of Imago Dei (Image of God) in a way that really harms her argument. If she makes a mistake here, it undermines here argument for female deacons. This piece will note Church teaching on the Image of God, point out Zagano’s error, and note another issue she had with fundamental theology principles. Church Teaching on the Image of God Male and female hand (CC0 Pixabay) The image and likeness of God is a fundamental principle when talking about how humans are all equal. I spend a lecture on this at the beginning of bioethics and mention it in fundamental moral theology. The point is that dignity is intrinsic, being based on being an...

Greetings from Wichita, Kansas, where I am in town — as I frequently am — to visit family and to be tempted into buying stacks of books (and icons) at the amazing Eighth Day Books (see this 2015 New York Times feature). This time around, I am one of the speakers at the 10th annual Inklings Festival at the Eighth Day Institute. The title of my talk: “The Scariest Five Chapters in the Work of C. S. Lewis.” Anyone want to guess which five chapters I will be discussing? Yes, they are five chapters in the same book. If you happen to be cruising across the High Plains, please drop by. The Inklings pub crawl is worth the effort, all by itself. Anyway, down to business. I am still thinking about that post earlier this week: “Hollywood Christians: A large congregation?” That made me think about an ...

‘Dilexit nos’: A brief guide for busy readers Skip to content Pope Francis published the fourth encyclical of his so far 11-year pontificate Thursday. A Sacred Heart of Jesus statue in Alsace, France. © Ralph Hammann – Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). The 141-page, 28,000-word Dilexit nos (“He loved us”) follows 2013’s Lumen fidei (co-written with Benedict XVI), 2015’s Laudato si’, and 2020’s Fratelli tutti. The new encyclical’s incipit, or opening phrase, is drawn from Romans 8:37, in which St. Paul says Christians can overcome every adversity “through him who loved us.” What’s the genesis of the new encyclical, dedicated to “the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ”? And what does it say? Here’s a brief guide for busy readers. Share What’s the background? Pope Franci...