The Dispatch

#Blessed

May 7, 2026 Amy Welborn 21

There has been much talk recently about blessings, and of course, the Blessing Problem Child, Fiducia Supplicans. (FS) (If you would like an overview of the document and subsequent…discussion, the Wikipedia article is useful.) I was […]

The Dispatch

Centesimus Annus at 35

May 6, 2026 George Weigel 6

Thirty-five years ago, Pope John Paul II issued his most developed social encyclical, Centesimus Annus; its title signaled the author’s intention to honor the centenary of Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum, which launched the modern papal […]

The Dispatch

The transmission theory of authority

May 4, 2026 Dr. Edward Feser 13

Scholastic thinkers like Cardinal Cajetan, St. Robert Bellarmine, and Francisco Suárez developed what is sometimes called a “transmission theory” of governmental authority. It holds that such authority ultimately comes from God, but is directly vested […]