The Dispatch
On ‘Christians’ and the ‘greatest Christians’
Why Cardinal Cupich’s remark that “some of the greatest Christians I know are people who don’t actually have a faith system that they believe in” is […]
Articles by Edward N. Peters
The Dispatch
The Catholic Church recognizes most of the world’s ‘civil marriages’
Catholics should not be misled by thinking that “civil marriage” is not usually real marriage or think that any approval of “same-sex marriage” is consistent […]
The Dispatch
Liturgy, papal infallibility, and terminology
In what way can a pope declare that “liturgical reform” is “irreversible”? […]
The Dispatch
Pope Francis’ ‘Buenos Aires’ letter posted on the Vatican website. Now what?
Acta Apostolicae Sedis is not a synonym for “Vatican Website” and it has not been designated as the vehicle for promulgating canon law or equivalent provisions. […]
The Dispatch
Archbishop Fernández’s apparent confusion over excommunication and canon law
The 1983 Code does not, and the 1917 Code did not, deprive divorced-and-remarried Catholics per se of ecclesiastical funeral rites. […]
The Dispatch
On Fr. Nichols’ recent remarks on the papacy and canon law
A key check against papal freedom turning into license, albeit a check harder to pin down than are neatly drafted canons, is “Tradition”. […]
The Dispatch
Come over here and say that
Austen Ivereigh, in one of the most embarrassing essays Crux has ever run, recently smeared seven talented Catholic commentators as suffering from ‘convert neurosis’. Not once in passing, but repeatedly, Ivereigh uses ‘neurosis’ and ‘neurotic’ in regard to some seven […]
The Dispatch
Canon law and that ‘Humanae vitae’ rumor
Too many Roman rumors, it seems of late, have turned out to be true (or close enough to true) to rule out recent rumors that a “papal commission” has been set up “to reconsider” (perhaps as a […]
The Dispatch
Divorce and the duties of Catholic lawyers
Civil lawyer C. T. Rossi, in his essay Permission for Divorce and the Catholic Lawyer’s Dilemma, complains that “the Church has done little to educate its legal practitioners about their responsibilities as Catholic lawyers”, complains that […]
The Dispatch
Bishop McGrath’s lacking letter on sacramental service
In 1977, during the darkest period of canonical confusion that ran from the end of the Second Vatican Council until the promulgation of the 1983 Code, then-Fr Patrick McGrath earned a doctoral degree in canon law from […]