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Opinion

Francis could do what he did, but that’s not the crucial thing

July 21, 2021
Robert P. George

Pope Francis has placed very significant restrictions on the saying of the old Mass, abrogating the much more permissive or generous policy of his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI. It is the pope’s call to make. I hope people will accept it or work within proper channels to modify the restrictions. Pope Francis himself could reverse

Don’t apologise for the inquisition

July 21, 2021
Lessons From the Archives

Reviewing a book called Inquisition: The Reign of Fear by Toby Green, Quentin de la Bedoyere warns against apologetic attempts to rationalize the Spanish Inquisition. He was the science editor of the Catholic Herald, and the son of Michael, who edited the newspaper from 1934 to 1962. The review was titled “Inquisition apologists are missing

Summorum Pontificum a restoration after a gross impoverishment

July 18, 2021
Lessons From the Archives

Though it has just been rejected by his successor, Benedict XVI’s motu propio Summorum Pontificum made many people happy when he issued it in 2007. Liturgical scholar Alcuin Reid celebrated the statement as a needed application of the real intentions of the Second Vatican Council. He had reason to say this. A monk of the

Twelve quick thoughts on Pope Francis dropping his long-expected bomb on the traditional latin Mass

July 16, 2021
Peter Wolfgang

1) In his motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, Pope Francis says St. John Paul II’s indults were only meant to heal the breach with Archbishop Lefebvre, not to have the traditional latin Mass as a continuing reality in the Church (my paraphrase). He quotes Pope Benedict XVI on “allowing” the TLM, which seems to buttress the point

A slippery slope: When Catholics follow their reason straight out of the Church

July 14, 2021
Karl Keating

Forty-some years ago, I sat in on meetings of the presumptuously-named Philosophers Club, which met in the home of its San Diego founder, a young man who would go on to become the leader of the American Humanist Association. Members of the club prided themselves on their rationality. They eschewed religion. Most were atheists, others

The English team, he says, is the “enemy of truth, beauty, and goodness”

July 13, 2021
David Mills

Yes, someone said that -- not a complete crank, either -- in an article for a third-tier conserative American publication that was essentially a rant, says David Mills, who took up his pen mainly because the author of the screed annoyed him. "The article's a rant by an ideologically marginal writer, writing in a marginal publication," but the author of the piece "does represent a large section of American conservatism, who think as he does."

Britain vs France in 1948

July 12, 2021
Lessons From the Archives

The Scottish accountant, novelist, and Catholic convert, Bruce Marshall escaped Paris just two days before the Germans invaded, served in the army through the war, and then returned to France when the war ended. Perhaps best known now for Father Malachy’s Miracle and The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith, he also wrote spy stories

Being pro-life, like being Christian: It’s about what you do, not what you protest

July 09, 2021
Mary Pezzulo

A friend had taken a perilous road trip, to save a family in danger of being killed. My friend’s a pro-life activist, who stands outside abortion clinics and talks to people in a friendly way. If expectant mothers going into the clinic are willing, she befriends them, and she gets them what they need so

Maria Goretti’s silence was tragic, not heroic, and not a model for us

July 07, 2021
Steven D. Greydanus

One of the more uncomfortable homilies I can remember included a paean to the “heroic silence” of St Maria Goretti in the face of prolonged sexual harassment by her eventual murderer, Alessandro Serenelli. Maria’s silence, for the homilist, evoked that of Christ during his trials and passion — a connection he meant to be inspiring.

Free the Latin Mass, for the good of the Church and the people who need it

July 06, 2021
David Mills

Those who want the Latin Mass “only wish to be part of that ‘great orchestra’ of ‘unity in variety’ which, as Pope Francis said, reflects the true catholicity of the Church.” Many with leadership roles in the Church are keen to exclude them.

Doctors forget they are plumbers

July 05, 2021
Lessons From the Archives

The highly praised novelist, columnist for The Spectator, The Oldie, and The Catholic Herald, creator of cookbooks, and Duckworth’s fiction editor, Alice Thomas Ellis was both a smoker and a contrarian. Here, writing in 1993, she writes as both. She expresses skepticism about the expertise of doctors some will feel relevant at the moment. Cat

God Knows, We Will Doubt God

July 03, 2021
Br. Mark Dohle

When looking for a quote on doubt, on this feast of St Thomas the Apostle, whom we call “Doubting Thomas,” I was surprised how differently people look upon this common human experience. Some of the quotes presented doubt as if it was some kind of failure. For instance, a quote from the Evangelical pastor John

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