The Dispatch
“Every truth is from the Holy Spirit”: On Pentecost Sunday
On the Readings for Pentecost Sunday, May 20, 2018 […]
Jesus Christ
The Dispatch
His Body, His Choice: Abortion, politics, and our Communion crisis
Choice. It’s a word that expresses the religion of most Americans: one that centers on the self and the freedom to pursue one’s own desire. Freedom is the basis for happiness, it is true, though […]
The Dispatch
The perfect priesthood of Christ and the longest prayer in the Gospels
Readings: • Acts 1:12-14 • Psa 27:1, 4, 7-8 • 1 Pt 4:13-16 • Jn 17:1-11a “Our Father, who art in heaven…” You know the rest. We are all familiar with The Lord’s Prayer, given […]
The Dispatch
Saint Bernardine of Siena and the original bonfire of the vanities
On May 20th, the Church commemorates St. Bernardine (or Bernardino) of Siena (1380-1444), a famous Franciscan priest who preached all over Italy. On Bernardine’s feast day, Catholics typically focus on one of his favorite preaching […]
Chapp's Schtick
The progressive revolution’s continued control of the ecclesial narrative
Vatican II was unique in the history of councils insofar as the crisis it was called to address was not a specific and well-defined theological heresy. Rather, it was called to address the crisis presented […]
The Dispatch
Can we simply drop the Ascension story?
The Ascension of Jesus Christ, related in the Gospels of Mark and Luke and referred to throughout the New Testament, can be taken as something of an awkward anecdote in the Catholic canon. “And when […]
Essay
“Rogation Days” and Ascension
The three days prior to Ascension Thursday have been traditionally known as “Rogation Days” or the “Minor Litanies,” with the “Major Rogation” being observed on April 25. Their purpose was to beg God (rogare, to […]
Analysis
A ‘bolt out of the blue’: Pope Francis sets off an ecumenical earthquake
Pope Francis made history on Thursday, when he added to the Roman Martyrology the names of twenty-one Coptic Christians martyred in Libya in 2015, giving them a date on the Roman calendar of saints and […]
Essay
Remembering and reflecting on Joseph Ratzinger’s Gospel of Love
It is no easy thing to sum up the thought of a man whose academic and ecclesial career spans some of the most tumultuous and epochal recent historical events in Church and world, whose written […]
The Dispatch
No Christ, no Church; know Christ, know the Church
Readings: • Acts 6:1-7 • Psa 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19 • 1 Pet 2:4-9 • Jn 14:1-12 Perhaps you, like me, know people who express belief in Jesus, but have no interest in the Church. I […]