Charlotte priests submit dubia to Vatican over liturgical changes by Michelle la Rosa (The Pillar): “The pastoral letter of December 17 [has] caused a great deal of concern amongst the priests and faithful of the Diocese of Charlotte.”
My last day on this job by Phil Lawler (Catholic Culture): “As the year 2025 comes to an end, so does my career as editor of Catholic World News. I am retiring from the daily-news business, effective January 1.”
Catholic Philosopher on U.S. Capture of Maduro: A Just War in Theory But So Far Not in Practice by Edward Pentin (Edward Pentin’s Substack): “American philosophy professor Edward Feser contends that the military operation, though justified in theory, has yet to meet the ancient just war criteria dating back to Sts. Ambrose and Augustine.”
In the New Year, we can expect the beginning of the Leo-era by Christopher R. Altieri (Crux): “’We don’t actually know what Pope Leo is yet,’ my friend observed. ‘Right now, we are seeing the post-Francis era,’ he continued, ‘and I don’t think we are going to see the Leo era until next year.’”
Christendom Rising: A Path for Hope by Editorial Team (The European Conservative): “Europe must become Christendom again. We have no other choice, but it’s a merry one. A bright star is in the sky, all we must do is follow it.”
Diagnosing a Disordered Age: New and Notable Books by Mark Bauerlein (First Things): “‘Technology’s power to shape thinking should matter to every sensible person, but it should especially matter for Christians.’ So says one of the editors of Scrolling Ourselves to Death: Reclaiming Life in a Digital Age.”
From Soleimani to Maduro, Trump Was Never an Isolationist by James Diddams (Providence): “The January 3, 2026 nighttime raid on Caracas that culminated in the capture of Nicolás Maduro was shocking only to those who misunderstood Donald Trump’s foreign policy from the start.”
Recovering the Truth about the Body in a “Liquid” Age, an interview with Angela Franks by Carl E. Olson (What We Need Now – Substack): “The word ‘identity’ is batted about quite a bit, but few have tried to define it. In addition, it has become a bit of a scholarly truism that identity is a modern notion, that pre-modern people did not have an understanding of identity.”
Interreligious Dialogue: A Brief Reflection on What Is at Stake by Cole DeSantis (Homiletic & Pastoral Review): “Thich Nhat Hahn, besides being one of the major spiritual and intellectual leaders of Zen Buddhism in Southeast Asia, one of the popularizers of Buddhism in the West, and one of the great advocates of the peace movement, was also one of the trailblazers of Buddhist-Christian dialogue.”
A priest blessed the Steelers. Then they clinched a playoff spot by Christine Rousselle (Aleteia): “A priest blessed the Pittsburgh Steelers’ field with Holy Water before their game against the Baltimore Ravens. Now people are wondering if God is a Steelers fan.”
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
#7 From Suleimani to Maduro, Trump Never Was an Isolationist –
Succinct and clarifying article. Thanks.
The article from Crux quotes someone as calling the current pontificate one “of adjustment.” Perhaps true, but adjustment to what? I don’t claim any insights beyond those of anyone else sitting in an unimportant spot on the sidelines, but thus far, the present pontiff strikes me as Francis Lite. I keep hoping I’m wrong, but I’ve seen too many new years enter and leave to believe that the date January 1 necessarily heralds anything significant. (Remember all the pearl clutching over Y2K?)
@ Interreligious Dialogue
The author distinguishes ecumenism (within Christianity) from interreligious dialogue. He focuses partly on the universal natural law, and then counsels an approach more intent on communication between persons on their paths to holiness. The Church concurs, that the Church’s sacraments are the normal path, but that the gratuitous workings of God are not quite limited to the sacraments.
This reader would like to see more about the reasonably distinct, inborn, and universal Natural Law as distinguished clearly from broader religious traditions, and even from the divine Self-disclosure (public revelation) of a Triune God who is with us; and clarity between religious belief traditions and our uniquely Christian “faith” in the historical Person of Jesus Christ.
The article offers many insightful citations, including from St. John Paul II. But, on the irreducible difference between personal paths to holiness (the valuable insight concluding the article) and religions—as such—we have John Paul II’s added insights:
ABOUT BUDDHISM: “The ‘Buddhist doctrine of salvation’ constitutes the central point, or rather the only point, of this system. Nevertheless, both the Buddhist tradition and the methods deriving from it have an almost exclusively ‘negative soteriology.’ The ‘enlightenment’ expressed by Buddha comes down to the conviction that the world is bad, that it is the source of evil and of suffering by man. To liberate oneself from this evil, one must free oneself from the world, necessitating a break with the ties that join us to external reality—ties existing in our human nature, in our psyche, in our bodies [….] Do we draw near to God in this way? [….] Buddhism is in large measure an ‘atheistic system” (‘Crossing the Threshold of Hope,’ 1994, pp. 85-6).
ABOUT ISLAM: “Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, clearly sees the process ‘by which it completely reduces Divine Revelation.’ It is impossible not to note the movement away from what God said about Himself, first in the Old Testament through the Prophets, and then finally in the New Testament through His Son. In Islam all the richness of God’s self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside . . . . Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Koran, but He is ultimately a God outside of the world, a God ‘who in only Majesty, never Emmanuel,’ God-with-us. ‘Islam is not a religion of redemption.’ There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection. Jesus is mentioned, but only as a prophet who prepares for the last prophet, Mohammed. There is also mention of Mary, His Virgin Mother, but the tragedy of redemption is completely absent. For this reason not only the theology but also the anthropology of Islam is very distant from Christianity” (, pp. 92-3).
SUMMARY: The difference between personal holiness and religious traditions—as such; and then the merit of interpersonal dialogue focused on differing understandings of the inborn and universal Natural Law (as distinct, again, from added public Revelation or non-Christian religious Traditions).
Regarding the Steelers Blessing, as a long suffering Lion’s fan, this points to the need for the Detroit Lions fans, coaches and management to request celestial help. So in this regard, Detroit Lions Management should see if they can have at the start of next season a priest to bless the Detroit Lions to at least minimize injuries, they are one of the most injured teams in the NFL for 2 years in a row, and then humbly request God, maybe to have the Lions win the Super Bowl in 2027. Think Lion’s fans have been in Football Purgatory long enough, and have done our share of penance.
“American philosophy professor Edward Feser contends that the military operation, though justified in theory, has yet to meet the ancient just war criteria dating back to Sts. Ambrose and Augustine.”
******
It doesn’t look exactly like a war to me but it goes far beyond corruption & drug traffic in Venezuela. Pres. Trump’s actions also have an impact on the shaky Iranian regime, Russia, China, & global terrorism.
Augustine predates the idiom of sovereign nation-states by a thousand years, and networks of nation-states with puppet proxy states, or even implant racketeers with official letterheads. About just wars, was China wrong to at least oppose the 19th-century opium trade that corrupted the nation? About just un-wars would it have been wrong to capture Hitler before he captured Poland and almost all of the West—at astronomical cost?
Just askin,’ what is a “war” and when is the essential Just War Theory a square peg in a round hole?
Re the priest blessing the Steelers, sorry, just don’t support this.
I believe that excessive, paramount devotion and allegiance to one’s sports team can become almost akin to idolatry. I know. As a Notre Dame grad, I’ve been guilty of it.
@ Catholic Philosopher on U.S. Capture of Maduro: A Just War in Theory But So Far Not in Practice.
Agreement with Feser is now reached by this writer with his appraisal of the Maduro capture and the state of affairs in Venezuela. That includes US capture of that nation’s oil industry and reserves, support of the former Maduro politicians rather than the woman who won the last election who promised democracy.
Quite egregious is Trump’s growing threat of invading Greenland and his blanket threats of military intervention against other American states.
What began as a welcome change in American politics has become a president’s egotistical ride to unprincipled power and self aggrandisement, pushing the Constitution to an exaggerated doctrine of righteous, overbearing supremacy. What’s threatening and dangerous are the slew of highly placed appointees who have become as rabid as president Trump.
Donald Trump has gone over the edge and the best we can do is address his excesses and pray for a sane moderation of policy.
Good post, Fr. Morello.
I must keep my thoughts and comments in reserve for now. With so much happening and so much news coming forth daily it is imprudent to make concrete conclusions until more clarity is at hand. In the past several days since this all blew up in the news I’ve read from ‘credible sources’ that in times long past, while Venezuela was blessed with an abundance of oil, that oil for the most part stayed securely in the ground. When a few American Oil companies came in and offered to purchase for a substantial amount of money, those known oil fields and then with even larger amounts of $$$ build the means of extraction and refineries all with the approval of the Venezuelan government. American businessmen put out billions of dollars to build the Venezuelan oil industry. Then Chavez came into power and Nationalized all those companies, effectively stealing American owned oil and plants and using the new energy source as a bargaining hedge with foreign countries known to be home to various terror organizations and to be enemies of the USA as well as other mostly Western democratic countries. In the meantime their own citizens lived in poverty and fear as most socialist countries eventually do. I believe that sheds a different light on the U.S.A. taking back some of the oil that was stolen by both Chavez and continued under Maduro. So far, while reading so much about the millions of Venzuelans who fled their country because of the poverty and oppression and not having to experience such here in U.S., being free to criticize the Government and leave the country whenever I choose and return the same I am tilted to putting my trust in our elected President and his cabinet support them more than any administration during my 78.5 since birth here. Bottom line: There is far more that we don’t know than what we do and prudential judgement calls us to wait and see, hope and pray. Amen.
I agree Miss Mary. There are many moving parts to this that we just don’t know about. I really think it’s more about the Iranian regime and its allies than about oil or arresting Maduro.
As the news of the shooting of Renee Nicole Good plays out you will learn that a new video of the event taken by witness Emily Heller proves beyond a reasonable doubt that both president Trump, who said Ms Good ran over the ICE agent who shot her, and Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem who said Ms Good attacked the agent both lied.
“Trump’s “egotistical ride…unprincipled power…self aggrandizement…overbearing supremacy…slew of highly placed appointees who have become as rabid as the president..Trump has gone over the edge.”
I do like when someone writes clearly what they think and does not beat around the bush, but this does seem over the top to me.
This is about stopping the flow of drugs into the US, and the ANNUAL death of some 100,000 Americans, mostly young people. If my child had died from this I really wouldnt care how many angels needed to dance on the head of a pin to satisfy whiner democrats. They seem to have developed a party platform which requires defending lawbreakers, drug lords, sex traffickers, abortionists and criminals of all sorts. But God forbid you dont file the paper work before going after someone who is murdering your citizens, and they squeal like stuck pigs. Count me as behind Trump 100% on this. He warned Maduro, who by the way is NOT the legally elected President of Venezuela. Warned him to end the drug trade. Blew up numerous ships carrying drugs to the US (boo-hoo), and even blew up a port area on land the drug pushers were using. No net response. Americans have grown too used to Presidents who issue warnings and then wring their hands and do nothing to change what is hurting us. Trump has realized things dont have to be this way. We are not Switzerland. We are the proverbial 800 pound gorilla. Those who threaten us and think they can do it without consequence will learn that in fact they cannot. At least, not under this president. Bravo to Trump and his Chairmen. Bravo to our military folks.
And to those of you who value the price of groceries over the physical safety of your sons and daughters, who are threatened by thugs and other strongmen like Maduro, I can only say you are drinking too much democrat kool-aid. And that’s pathetic.