As our readers may recall, I wrote several posts discussing vocations and the vocations crisis in the Church. Here are links to parts one, two and three. After some delay I want to present part four, an interview with Fr. Michael Dolan. Fr. Dolan is currently the pastor of St. Margaret Mary Church in Windsor, Connecticut. Before that, however, he served as vocations director for the Archdiocese of Hartford. While he was in this position there was a substantial increase... Read more
Today, on the Feast of All Souls, I want to offer my prayers for the repose of the souls of your near and dear ones who died in the past year. My God, in his goodness, bless them and keep them close, may He watch over them and bring them home: In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas... Read more
With the close of the Synod of the Family, there is much discussion in the blogosphere about the outcomes. My own post on St. Augustine has attracted for more commentary than I expected, and Julia recently posted the Pope’s insightful speech that closed this year’s synod. To continue this discussion, I want to share an article I found thanks to conservative Vaticanista Sandro Magister. As I have noted previously, Magister has been positioning himself as a critic of Pope Francis,... Read more
Here, courtesy of Zenit, is the full text of Pope Francis’ concluding address at the Synod on the Family, for which the bishops’ standing ovation was well deserved. In keeping with the Holy Father’s own warnings, I will let the brilliance of his address speak for itself and not risk turning into my own weapon with excessive commentary – at least for now – except to concur with Fr. Thomas Rosica, “It’s worth pausing at every single word.” Dear Eminences, Beatitudes, Excellencies,... Read more
Suor Cristina Scuccia is an Italian nun who stunned Italy (and at one remove, the world) with her powerful singing voice. (A Youtube playlist of her songs from the The Voice can be found here.) She has now released her first single since winning the competition: a cover of Madonna’s Like a Virgin: The result is quite stunning, turning the song into an extended meditation on the singer’s own religious vocation. The video juxtaposes Suor Cristina singing in ways that... Read more
Vox Nova is pleased to welcome the following guest post by reader Mike McG. The terms ‘culture war’ and ‘culture warrior’ name very real tensions in both secular and religious domains. And yet I wonder if these phrases deepen the very polarization they seek to describe. The terms came into common usage in the early 1990s with the publication of American sociologist James Davison Hunter’s Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. The Pew Forum published an in-depth analysis of the book... Read more
The Synod on the Family has been very much in the news lately, particularly with the release yesterday of the Relatio post disceptationem to the media. This document deserves careful discussion, as does its reception by various parts of the Church and by the secular media. (Indeed, it made the front page of my local paper today!) But very much related to the discussions about mercy, justice, gradualism and upholding Church teaching is the following passage from St. Augustine, which... Read more
Fr. William Grimm, a Maryknoll priest in Japan, framed an essay about Pope Francis with a riddle that set me laughing and that I have to share: Q: What are the three things God does not know? A: 1) How wealthy are the Franciscans? 2) How many communities of religious sisters are there in the world? 3) What will the Jesuits do next? In the spirit of the joke, please feel free to suggest alternative things that “God does not... Read more
I am really not sure what to say, but I had to share this. Almost 30 years ago, the comic strip Doonesbury featured a two week series about a single woman, Marcia, who decided that she was tired of looking for Mr. Right, and was going to celebrate her new freedom by holding a singularity ceremony, complete with flowers, a minister, invitations and “bridal” registry: (The whole series can be viewed at GoComics.com.) The strip was an acerbic commentary... Read more
Last year I asked the rhetorical question: “Is there a new sheriff in town?” in response to the news that Pope Francis had suspended Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the Bishop of Limburg, Germany, because of questions about his finances and ostentatious lifestyle. The bishop later resigned his see. My answer was yes. At the time I speculated that Francis would act slowly and with charity, but would move decisively if he felt the circumstances merited action. Recent events seem to confirm... Read more
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