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Bishop Zubik on the Pittsburgh Shooting

November 9, 2018 By David Cruz-Uribe

To follow up on my post yesterday on the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, I want to share a column by Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh. It turns out that the Bishop knew well one of the men killed–as Michael Sean Winters points out, that this is unremarkable is one of the great consequences of Vatican II. (Hat tip to MSW for sharing this.) Here is one beautiful passage: This massacre is both deeply personal for us and… Read more

The Power of Delusion

November 8, 2018 By Mark Gordon

I’ve long had a personal rule that I never debate strict five-point Calvinists online because it is a pointless exercise … I’m now adding Trump supporters to that list. Read more

On Antisemitism and the Catholic Church

November 8, 2018 By David Cruz-Uribe

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I have been thinking a lot about antisemitism lately. Obviously, this was sparked by the killing of 11 Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27. Had it just been the shooting, I think I would have moved on–sadly, we have become desensitized to mass shootings in America. Years ago, after the execution of Michael Ross in CT, a BBC reporter asked me why protesting his execution was so important: “After all, what’s one more execution… Read more

It’s Not Really About the Issues

November 4, 2018 By Julia Smucker

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Granted, it’s never entirely not about the issues. The lawmakers we elect will invariably make decisions that will affect any number of human lives in any number of ways, and we the electorate know this. And yet it is for that very reason, in a bizarre twist of political irony befitting the absurdity of these times, that the issues our would-be lawmakers are pontificating on with apocalyptic fervor in their bids for our votes are presently of secondary concern. Secondary, that… Read more

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much.

October 24, 2018 By Julia Smucker

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Today being the anniversary of my confirmation, I decided to mark the day by going to daily Mass. The celebrant began his homily at the end of the gospel reading: “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” He asked us to think about our blessings: the blessing of life, of health, of faith – and in the United States, a standard of living surpassing that… Read more

A quick question on “sacrifice” versus “oblation”

October 23, 2018 By David Cruz-Uribe

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For October my parish is doing a short program on the Eucharist, and this has led me to listen a little more closely to the Eucharistic prayers. This past Sunday, a couple words leapt out at me: “oblation” and “sacrifice.” Oblation is an obscure word in English, and my guess is that in the previous English translation, it was translated as “offering.” And in fact the new translation uses both words for the same underlying Latin word (see below)…. Read more

Speaking to the Laity about the Crisis

October 4, 2018 By voxnovablog

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Vox Nova is pleased to welcome a guest post by long time reader Joseph Georges. It is now clear to many that the scandal of clerical sexual abuse is the most serious crisis the church has faced since the Reformation. (Massimo Faggioli in Commonweal, 8/8/18). “This summer has been anything but a church picnic for us. It’s been a disaster, one crisis after another. And as I try my best to listen to people, I hear them express very eloquently… Read more