Features
Pope Francis and clericalism
Despite his repeated and vehement denunciations of clericalism, Francis’ more general remarks about the laity sometimes nevertheless exhibit a sort of clerical chauvinism. […]
Opinion
Features
The Pope’s misuse of “calumny” distracts from deeper, more troubling questions
The problem with Pope Francis’ defense of Bishop Juan Barros is not that Francis has a poor grasp of technical legal terminology or misuses certain words, […]
Features
“Ecclesial reception” in the Era of Francis
Out of more than 5,000 bishops in the universal Church, I don’t think we can consider supporters of the problematic practice of permitting divorced and remarried […]
Opinion
The Jesuit Pope and the problematic reform of the Roman Curia
2017 was a year in which the micro-fissures in the structure began to be visible to the naked eye. 2018 is likely to be the […]
Features
Fr. Thomas Reese’s quixotic, irrational battle with Greek philosophy
The former editor of America magazine would do well to read Benedict XVI’s 2005 “Regensburg Address” and Vatican II’s documents on seminary training and Catholic […]
Features
From what, precisely, are Amoris Laetitia “dissenters” dissenting?
If even Pope Francis could be unsure about the orthodoxy of his controversial post-Synodal Exhortation, surely the faithful will be allowed to have perplexities of […]
Opinion
Sexploits and crisis: Is it 2002 revisited?
The current drama of Hollywood stars, media types, athletes and politicians is the fruit of the hyper-sexualization of society as a whole for decades at […]
Features
Natural law outside Catholicism? Regime-agnosticism and agnostic regimes
The question at hand is: what do we make of America’s schizophrenic natural law pedigree, rejecting but needing Catholic ideas? (And John Locke, history’s most […]
Features
Hot Air vs. Capital Punishment: A Reply to Paul Griffiths and David Bentley Hart
Griffiths’ review in First Things of By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed is rich in condescension, high in dudgeon, and largely devoid of substantive […]
Features
Yes, traditional Church teaching on capital punishment is definitive
given the “hermeneutic of continuity” emphasized by Pope Benedict XVI – and given especially the teaching of the First Vatican Council that popes have no […]