The Dispatch
Mass is not cancelled
Like many of you, our Sunday morning was spent, not in a pew, but in our living room, watching Mass on television. For a few hours on Saturday, it looked as though we might be […]
Articles by Amy Welborn
Essay
The Reality of Sex and the Lie of “Gender Self-Identity”
Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that […]
The Dispatch
Shocked, shocked! On Catholics and belief in the Real Presence
“Each time the Mass is offered, the fruits of our Redemption are poured anew upon our souls. By uniting ourselves with the sacred rite of the Mass, and above all by receiving Holy Communion, we […]
Essay
Clericalism and the disappearance of popular devotions
Steadily they walked, well-dressed, serious, each carrying a staff or a lit candle about a meter long, even the children. Over the two hours or so that we watched, there were hundreds of them—men and […]
Features
The problem with Pope Francis’ letter to the U.S. bishops
Pope Francis has written a letter to the American bishops, who are on retreat at Mundelein Seminary this week. It is, honestly, the usual strange/not-strange message from Pope Francis. Strange in that he goes all […]
The Dispatch
Of Gods and Men
[Editor’s note: On Saturday, December 8, 19 men and women martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996 were beatified during a Mass in Oran. Among them were seven Trappist monks from Tibhirine, who were the […]
History
Women and the Protestant Reformation
Luther and the Reformers went to war against the evangelical counsels as ideals and as the core of a vowed, religious life. Every woman—it was […]
Essay
The spiritual witness of Flannery O’Connor
The question sometimes comes up: “Where should I start with Flannery O’Connor?” Perhaps the person posing the question has never read O’Connor at all. Or he might have encountered one of her widely anthologized stories […]
Books
Reading Silence for the first time
In a few weeks, Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited adaptation of the novel Silence will go into wide release. Scorsese’s interest in the story of 17th-century Jesuit missionaries in Japan goes back decades, and the questions it […]
Opinion
Be Joyful Or Else
A Birmingham-based writer and acquaintance of mine had a piece about mental illness and faith published in the Washington Post today. It’s very good, and I’d recommend anyone in any kind of pastoral ministry read it: The […]