Our Emersonian Pontiff
Is clerical haberdashery really such a problem that it merits a prominent place in the pope’s intervention in a synod as overhyped as the one concluding in Rome these days?
Do Synod Doubters Really Trust the Holy Spirit?
History has demonstrated that the Holy Spirit has a way of confounding conventional expectations.
Blessing a Sterile Parody
Same-sex unions are not even unions, only a parody, both sad and sterile, of a relation that is not real.
The Popessa Meets the Pope
The Church is in a bad way when her pope alienates faithful Catholics while bonding with her detractors.
Reading Laudate Deum through the Lens of the World Economic Forum in Light of the Synod on Synodality
Are we witnessing the hollowing out of the Catholic Church’s origins, foundation, mission, and liturgy—including the proclamation of the Gospel—for purposes extraneous to the Church?
Understanding Pope Francis’ Response to Same-Sex Union Blessings
Should the Church allow same-sex unions to be blessed it would be an empty mercy—a mercy that cannot save because it is a “mercy” divorced from the truth of Christ.
How Pope Francis Is Inadvertently Developing the Doctrine of the Papacy
By his abuse of Catholics’ already-unhealthy overemphasis on the papacy, Pope Francis is leading many of them to now look more closely at the underlying official teaching.
Laudate Deum: Pope Francis’ Mistaken Apocalypse
Like popes of old, Francis speaks of a coming apocalypse, but unlike his predecessors, his view is natural rather than supernatural.
The Magical Mystery Magisterium and the Hermeneutic of Hermeneutics
Within the pope’s response to the recent dubia there is a statement that threatens to undermine the Church’s ability to make definitive definitions about doctrine.
Identifying the Problem is Only Half the Battle
Fr. James Altman is largely correct in identifying today’s problems in the Church, but his cure is as bad as the disease.
What Can We Expect From the Next Pope? (Guest: Charles Coulombe)
Pope Francis is still going strong, but he’s not a young man and eventually his time here on earth will pass. What will the next pope face in the wake of this controversial pontificate?
The Papacy, Doctrine, and Development
The pope is not a free agent. His authority, humanly considered, flows from his submission to and dependence upon Peter, that fisherman, that first pilot of the bark of the Church.
Can the Pope Declare an Unbaptized Infant a Martyr and a Saint?
The tradition of the Church requires humility on our part—the humility not to say we know anything more or anything less than what we certainly know.
Living in a Messy Church
The “mess” in the Church today is reflected in the total lack of order found in ecclesial appointments and suspensions. The unfaithful are rewarded while the faithful are disciplined.
False Views of the Papacy: Hyperpapalism, Sedevacantism, and Synodality (Guest: Fr. Jason Charron)
In this age of confusion, we see many competing ideas on how Catholics should understand the papacy. The most extreme forms—hyperpapalism and sedevacantism— both include an overexaggerated sense of the papacy. Synodality, at least on paper, appears to be the opposite extreme. Is there a better way forward?
Solum Magisterium?
Archbishop Victor Fernández’s claim about a “doctrine of the Holy Father” runs the risk of collapsing all distinction between the magisterium and its normative sources, such as Scripture and Tradition.
Resisting Papal Overreach: The Story of Bishop Isidore Borecky
Would there be historical precedent if Bishop Joseph Strickland were to refuse to acknowledge his deposition if Rome should proceed with that step?
A Papal Silence Would Be Welcome at Times
A religious leader should be very careful about spreading his thinking too thin; a pope is not an omniscient source of opinions about everything.