Category: Apologetics

About Eduardo Echeverria 25 ArticlesEduardo Echeverria is Professor of Philosophy and Systematic Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. He earned his doctorate in philosophy from the Free University in Amsterdam and his S.T.L. from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. A review of Archbishop Karol Wojtyla’s newly discovered and published 1965 reflections on St. Paul’s discourse at the Areopagus, titled Teachings for an Unbelieving World. Archbishop Karol Wojtyla’s newly discovered 1965 reflections on St. Paul’s discourse at the Areopagus (Acts 17: 16-32), Mars Hill, is the starting point for Wojtyla’s cycle of catecheses in this book, Teachings for an …

Fr. Jerry Pokorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington who has also served as a financial administrator in the Diocese of Lincoln. Trained in business and accounting, he also holds a Master of Divinity and a Master’s in moral theology. Father Pokorsky co-founded both CREDO and Adoremus, two organizations deeply engaged in authentic liturgical renewal. He writes regularly for a number of Catholic websites and magazines. The cancellation of the public celebration of the Mass in dioceses across the US and the world—beginning in Rome—has established dangerous precedents. In addition to the breathtaking surrender to secular authorities with no …

Holy Thursday was one of the most important days in all of history. It was a pivotal day in the life of Jesus Christ. Here are 10 things you should know about it and how we celebrate it today – Jimmy Akin Every single Mass, we hear the words “on the night he was betrayed.” That night was Holy Thursday, and it is one of the most important nights in all of history. Here are 10 things you need to know. 1. What happened on the original Holy Thursday? An amazing amount of stuff! This was one of the most …

by Jules Gomes  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  April 2, 2020 Catholics mock new liturgy as ‘April Fools’ joke’ You are not signed in as a Premium user; we rely on Premium users to support our news reporting. Sign in or Sign up today! VATICAN CITY – The new “Mass in Time of Pandemic,” published on April 1 by the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, has been stripped of all references to the “wrath of God.” The liturgy, approved by Pope Francis, eliminates all prayers emphasizing “repentance” — references which abound in the “Recordare domine testamenti” [Remember, Lord, thy covenant] votive Mass — composed and used for deliverance from pestilences since the Black …

Perseverance on a difficult but noble path is a virtue. Stubbornness when confronted by irrefutable evidence of a grave mistake is a vice. The latter would seem an apt characterization of a letter sent on Ash Wednesday to the entire College of Cardinals by its new Dean, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. In that letter — his first official act as Dean — Cardinal Re reprimands the redoubtable Cardinal Joseph Zen, SDB, emeritus bishop of Hong Kong, for his criticisms of the agreement the Vatican made with the People’s Republic of China in 2018. The bloom is off the Chinese rose …

The gears of a vast, well-funded ecclesiastical bureaucracy are grinding away toward outcomes that seem baked into the process from its inception. As Yale’s Carlos Eire masterfully demonstrated in Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650, there was no one “Protestant Reformation” but rather several religious movements, often in disagreement with each other, that shattered western Christendom in the 16th century. Still, Martin Luther’s protest at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, has long been taken as the starting gun for “the Reformation,” and various Protestant denominations celebrate “Reformation Day” on the Sunday closest to October 31. So “Wittenberg” can serve as a …

Michael Warren Davis is the editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine. He is a frequent contributor to The American Conservative and the author of the forthcoming book The Reactionary Mind (Regnery, 2021). Back when I was a Protestant, one of the Catholic Church’s great draws to me was its teaching that it’s actually a sin to skip formal, collective worship on Sunday. In the Episcopal Church, we were very much into the idea that you could honor the Sabbath “in your own way,” and—well, there’s only one sacrament for middle-class Yankees, and that’s brunch. The rest is optional. Not in the Catholic Church. Here’s a faith that tells us exactly what God expects …

By Michael Warren Davis. Michael Warren Davis is the editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine. He is a frequent contributor to The American Conservative and the author of the forthcoming book The Reactionary Mind (Regnery, 2021). Does the Vatican have a General Directorate for Personnel? This is, perhaps, the most boring question ever posed by a writer in Crisis Magazine. And yet, as we fumble for an answer, we also come a little closer to understanding one of the most confounding papacies in 2,000 years of Christian history. Last Friday, the Vatican’s daily news bulletin announced the creation of this new “Directorate,” which would be nestled under the Secretariat of State. …

Jesus teaches us, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you….” (Mt. 5:44) If forgiveness and praying for enemies were easy, there would be little reason for Jesus to make the command. Our capacity to forgive depends upon the totality of Christian virtue, and forgiving enemies is the crown jewel of martyrdom. In those vintage black and white cowboy movies, the good guy defeats the bad guy and, with pent-up rage, has an opportunity to exact revenge. But self-control prevails, and the hero surrenders the villain to the authorities. Perhaps this pattern is a cultural reflection of Christian …

BY MSGR. CHARLES POPE So you think the idea of the 12 Steps is new. Well, if you think you’ve got a new idea, go back and see how the Greeks put it, or in this case how the Medieval Latins put it. St. Bernard of Clairvaux identified twelve steps up the mountain of pride. These are detailed in a work by him entitled Steps of Humility and Pride. In today’s post we focus on the Twelve Steps of Pride. Tomorrow, on the Twelve Steps of Humility (from St Benedict’s rule).  Here I list the 12 Steps of Pride only briefly and …