Chapp’s Schtick

“But Jesus remained silent”— Matthew 26:63 Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925), affirmed the doctrine of the social kingship of Christ. He thereby kicked back against the tide of the modern political […]

In Part One of this essay on Dignitatis Humanae, I made the argument, following Tracey Rowland and Russel Hittinger, that DH should be read minimalistically as a simple affirmation that no person should be forcibly […]

Editor’s note: This is Part One of a two-part essay on the teachings of the Second Vatican Council on religious freedom. ———— One of the constant criticisms from traditionalist Catholics of Vatican II’s document on […]

Pope Leo’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, is a pointed and prophetic gut punch. Don’t be fooled by the usual “ecclesial-speak” argot of the text. When read carefully and closely, what emerges is a blunt, and even […]

On the anniversary of his election, and with a year of the papacy under his belt, it is fair to say that Pope Leo would make, as a friend of mine has stated, a “good […]

The Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Fr. Davide Pagliarani, has recently given a lengthy interview in which he lays out his case for why the Society is justified in defying […]

Recently, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document on the importance of the Anglican Ordinariates. The text has a long and rather awkward title: “Characteristics of the Anglican Heritage as Lived […]

In an ancient Greek legend, Alexander the Great famously solved the challenge of untying the Gordian knot by bypassing that seemingly impossible task entirely and instead chose, simply and directly, to slice through it with […]

As most close observers of Catholicism today are no doubt aware, there has arisen over the past 15 years or so a movement that goes by the rather vague moniker of “radical traditionalism”. The exact […]