The Council of Trent is depicted by Pasquale Cati in 1588. Wikimedia Commons via Anthony M. “The latest ecumenical councils — Trent, Vatican I, Vatican II — applied themselves to clarifying the mystery of the faith and undertook the necessary reforms for the good of the Church, solicitous for the continuity with the apostolic tradition.” — Pope Blessed John Paul II, Discourse, Oct. 22, 1998 In the middle of the 16th century, the Catholic Church was in need of reform and renewal, and while the Church acknowledged these problems and had begun reforms, the corrective actions were not quick enough …
Category: Church History
Tradition and the Signs of the Times
James Kalb is a lawyer, independent scholar, and Catholic convert who lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of The Tyranny of Liberalism(ISI Books, 2008) and, most recently, Against Inclusiveness: How the Diversity Regime is Flattening America and the West and What to Do About It (Angelico Press, 2013). God doesn’t get reported in the news, and the experts in the media question or deny him and everything about him. So how do we get people—how do we get ourselves—to feel that He is more real than anything else? How can Catholics most help the world? The obvious answer is that they would …
Martin Luther: True reformer or defender of erroneous conscience?
R. Jared Staudt PhD, serves as Director of Content for Exodus 90 and as an instructor for the lay division of St. John Vianney Seminary. He is the author of How the Eucharist Can Save Civilization (TAN), Restoring Humanity: Essays on the Evangelization of Culture (Divine Providence Press), and The Beer Option (Angelico Press), as well as editor of Renewing Catholic Schools: How to Regain a Catholic Vision in a Secular Age (Catholic Education Press). He and his wife Anne have six children and he is a Benedictine oblate. The key issue in debating Luther’s legacy on conscience in the Catholic Church entails whether the teachings of the Church …
Conscience and leadership in the lives of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki is Bishop of Springfield in Illinois and is Chairman-elect of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance. Conscience does not act in isolation on some sort of personal or individual intuition disconnected from someone or something else. For a Catholic, a properly formed conscience means to share God’s knowledge and the Church’s teaching about right or wrong. Editor’s note: The following 2023 Chelsea Lecture was delivered by Most Reverend Thomas John Paprocki at Chelsea Academy, in Front Royal, Virginia, on February 7, 2023. It is good to be with you to deliver …
The Genesis of the Novus Ordo and “Theological and Spiritual Flaws” of The Latin Mass
Janet E. Smith, Ph.D., is a retired professor of moral theology. The second essay in this series demonstrated that Cavadini, Healy, and Weinandy (CHW) misrepresented several key documents in respect to the liturgy as well as the views of Cardinal Ratzinger. This third essay shows that CHW provide no analysis of duplicitous methods used by Fr. Bugnini in the composition of the Novus Ordo Mass (NO), nor do they report how ambivalent Pope Paul VI was about the changes. Most seriously CHW speak of the traditional Latin Mass (TLM) as being theologically flawed and claim that it is clear that …
St. Peter Canisius
An important figure in the Catholic counter-reformation that responded to the 16th-century spread of Protestantism, the priest and Doctor of the Church Saint Peter Canisius is remembered liturgically on Dec. 21. His efforts as a preacher, author, and religious educator strengthened the Catholic faith in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and parts of Central Europe during a period of doctrinal confusion. Writing about St. Peter Canisius in 1897, Pope Leo XIII noted similarities between the late 19th century and the saint’s own lifetime, “a period when the spirit of revolution and looseness of doctrine resulted in a great loss of faith and …
Reacting to the pontifical academy, theologian says teaching of Humanae vitae can’t change
By Carl Bunderson for CNA Denver, Colo., Aug 8, 2022 / 19:01 pm (CNA). The teaching of Humanae vitae on contraception is an instance of the ordinary and universal magisterium, and as such is irreformable, a moral theologian has said in response to a statement from the Pontifical Academy for Life. Father Thomas Petri, O.P., president of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., noted that even critics of the teaching on contraception have “acknowledged that this was always the Church’s teaching” and that nowhere in the Church’s teaching has there been permissiveness, of any form, of contraception. “This suggests that this …
Heaven on Earth: Liturgical Wisdom from Eastern Christianity
R. Jared Staudt PhD, serves as Associate Superintendent for Mission and Formation for the Archdiocese of Denver and Visiting Associate Professor for the Augustine Institute. He is the author of Restoring Humanity: Essays on the Evangelization of Culture (Divine Providence Press) and The Beer Option (Angelico Press) and the editor of Renewing Catholic Schools: How to Regain a Catholic Vision in a Secular Age (Catholic Education Press). He and his wife Anne have six children, and he is a Benedictine oblate. It is easy to forget that the Catholic Church is composed of 24 self-governing Churches with distinct liturgical rites. We lose sight of this because the …
Our Lady of Lourdes, Pray For Us!
Kelly Marcum studied International Politics at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and received her M.A. from the War Studies Department at King’s College London. She is the founder and President of Gratia Plena Institute, an organization dedicated to teaching high school girls about the Catholic vision of authentic femininity. Her writing has been featured in The American Conservative, The Federalist, The Washington Examiner, and Catholic Exchange. She lives with her husband and children in Virginia. “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.” — ‘Song of Bernadette’ Our Lady of Lourdes was the first …
St. Irenaeus of Lyon: Getting to know the new Doctor of the Church
Peter John McGregor is a lecturer in dogmatic theology and spirituality at the Catholic Institute of Sydney, Australia. Why has Pope Francis chosen Irenaeus to be our latest Doctor, and why will he name him Doctor of Unity? To answer these questions, we must look at this life and accomplishments. On 7th October 2021, Pope Francis announced that he planned to name St. Irenaeus of Lyon as the 37th Doctor of the Church, giving him the title “Doctor of Unity”. And this past Friday, he declared St. Irenaeus the 37th Doctor of the Church, with the title “Doctor Unitatis” (“Doctor of Unity”). “May the doctrine …