Two Catholic Mentalities – “The tragedy arises from the deep theological and philosophical division that has plagued Catholic Christianity throughout the modern era, ever since God disappeared from the horizon . . . ” Synodality and the Spirit of Truth (First Things)
Convert Young People – “Anyone who has read and believed the words of Christ in the New Testament knows that he who rejects Christ’s messengers rejects Christ, and that Christ has commissioned the Church to preach the Gospel to the whole world.” Earth to WYD: God permits, not desires, many religions (Catholic Culture)
Streaming is Collapsing – “Theaters have returned and so has the American habit of spending time around each other, enjoying things together. For all its faults, the movie theater is much preferable to the lockdowns . . . ” A Return to Heroism (Law & Liberty)
Systemic Failure – “Over the last decade-plus, sexual misconduct in public schools has become rampant.” Red Flags in the Classroom (City Journal)
Battered by Terrorism – “Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, has called on his country’s new government to take urgent action to combat violence and insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation.” Nigeria prelate wants ‘bandits defeated, kidnappers driven out of business’ (Crux)
The Wrong Question – “The sexual saga of Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, S.J., a priapic theologian, artist, and abuser of women, has gotten enough press. Now Catholics ask: ‘What should we do with his art?’ The Love Song of M. Ivan Rupnik (Maureen Mullarkey: Studio Matters)
Quasi-Nestorian Proposition – “Not long ago Another Publication ran an essay by one Monsignor Kevin W. Irwin, apparently a professional ‘liturgist,’ who argued that Catholics are wrong to regard the Blessed Sacrament as ‘the body of Jesus’ rather than as ‘the body of Christ’ . . . ” What, then, Does Monsignor Irwin Mean? (The Lamp)
Sidestepping Pro-Life Republicans – Get ready for the next iteration of the abortion fight: state constitutions. After Roe, abortion activists are targeting state constitutions. Next up? Ohio. (USA Today)
Battle for Europe – “A new clash is brewing in Europe. After years of tensions, the European conflict escalated last week to violence. But is this a conflict of secularism vs. religion?” Atheist-religious tensions in Europe could spell disaster – opinion (The Jerusalem Post)
Anti-Homosexuality Laws – “Catholic faithful across the country joined the nationwide peaceful street protests against same sex marriage and in defence of marriage, the family and human sexuality.” MALAWI: Religious Groups Protest Homosexuality “an Imposition on Africa, Asia and Latin America” (Catholic Information Service for Africa)
Before Electric Spotlights – “Gračanica, and Dečani are monuments of unequalled importance, astonishing for their architecture and frescoes, and for their incredible state of preservation in this most embattled region.” Portraits of Light and Shadow in Balkan Churches – Part 2: Peć, Gračanica, and Dečani (Orthodox Arts Journal)
Outlook of Tolerance – “What faith was for Paul and critique was for Kant, Synod is for the churchmen of today.” Synodality within a Liberal World (What We Need Now)
Abortion Travel – “Ancient cultures used to practice child sacrifice as an official religion to appease their false idols. The Biden administration isn’t too far removed.” Biden Spokesman: It’s Our “Sacred Obligation” to Promote Killing Babies in Abortions (Life News)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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If I may, would like to point out another useful bit of info. Something to check out is a 5 part series available on You Tube put out by the Church of St Mary’s in Lake Forest, Illinois. The Title is Summer School of Faith 2023, Guide for the Perplexed: Gaining Perspective from Historical Crisis for Anxious Catholic.
@ Anti-Homosexuality Laws
Having taught as a layman at Malawi’s major seminary, then positioned in a remote area, African students, clergy took to Christ’s revelation as a deliverance from barbarity, the scourge of homosexuality. The difference from the West is that we’ve become jaded.
What Africa represents is a newly formed, vibrant Church. And the realistic need to oppose homosexuality, its bizarre variants, same sex marriage. At this stage we have no other choice. Insofar as worry about the exemption, bankruptcy, bishops and priests are far better witnesses to Christ living a life of poverty.
@Two Catholic Mentalities
The author fancifully concludes (in part): “There remains the possibility that the pope might imitate Paul VI, who enraged the spirit of the age by rejecting the recommendations of his own Pontifical Commission on Birth Control. This pope could still make clear that the spirit of the age speaking through synodal questionnaires, focus groups, and functionaries is not the Spirit of Truth.”
Or, more likely (?), that the synod’s final report might be received in silence (the “endless journey”!) and–surprise–could refocus to obsolesce even Humanae Vitae…
…By enshrining parts of the presumed sensus fidelium to, yes, surely restate the magisterium, but while also prioritizing its disconnected and theologized “application”? Which is to say that concrete moral judgments (!) on concrete actions will yield to circumstances and more subjective decision patterns enabled under the abstract Fundamental Option, formerly discredited by both Humanae Vitae and Veritatis Splendor.
After all, if “welcoming” semantic latitude is signaled, implied, or even surrendered to the progressive and anti-binary LGBTQ “community”, then why not inclusively (!) for the community of archaic and binary families? And, moreover, as subordinated to the demographic imperatives of the globalized common good (aka first an “integral humanism,” then accurately a distinct “human ecology” as interrelated with the “natural ecology,” and now the neologism an “integral ecology”–possibly to be morally blurred by proportionalism and consequentialism?).
Rather than hope and pray that all may be saved, the faithful would do well to hope and pray that one may be saved from a synodal talk and walk through Satan’s sieve. Only then shall brethren be strengthened and lambs fed. Else where is there need of Christ and His Spousal Church?
Thank you so much for sharing the article about those beautiful Balkan churches & the photos.
It’s such a shame but whenever I watch a travel video of the Holy Land I can immediately identify the Catholic churches, at least the Latin Rite ones, from their terrible art & design.
Last night I saw a video about where St. Mary Magdalene lived. The church featured had a wall sized mural of feet. Our Lord’s feet, random people in a crowd’s feet, & I think the feet of the woman who touched His robes & was healed. Just their feet.
I don’t know why decent church design such a problem for us today but wasn’t a century ago. And to be fair, you see some pretty funky modern art in UK Anglican churches occasionally too. But not giant feet.