Chapp’s Schtick

In a relatively unknown interview with Fr. Jacque Servais, SJ, the late Pope Benedict XVI was asked about the apparent change in the Church’s doctrine concerning the salvation of the unbaptized. Fr. Servais begins by pointing […]

When reading Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s Flee From Heresy: A Catholic Guide to Ancient and Modern Errors, I was reminded of a shameful act from my youth. My then six-year-old younger sister complained to me one […]

One of the primary problems with the implementation of a more “synodal” Church is that there seems to be a double standard in play. Rome speaks a good game about wanting to develop more “collaborative” […]

America Magazine recently ran an article by Mary McAuliffe entitled “Women and LGBTQ Catholics are paying the price for church unity” (Jan. 2, 2024). The essay is completely unremarkable except insofar as it underscores and […]

Amy Welborn recently penned a spot-on analysis of the recent missive from Cardinal Blase Cupich informing the members of his diocese that kneeling to receive communion is no longer permitted. Cardinal Cupich does not explicitly […]

Deep nihilism and deceptive scientism Our culture is nihilistic. This is a fundamental premise that guides almost everything I write about. The deep nihilism of modernity is the air that we breathe—our deep worldview of […]

The senior writer at Commonweal magazine, Paul Baumann, has penned a thoughtful essay, titled “Pope Francis & Augustine”, on the current acrimonious debates between various ecclesial factions on the topic of the papacy of Pope […]

One of the things I have learned in my 65 years of being a Catholic is that the meaning of the term “Church reform” in the post-Vatican II era is almost always a cognate for […]

Here we go again with yet another papal controversy over remarks made by Pope Francis to a group of young people in Singapore concerning religious pluralism. My friend Christopher Altieri makes a good case here at […]

In March 2013, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio gave a short speech to the assembled Cardinals before the conclave wherein he described his vision for a Church that was far less “self-referential”. He instead sought a Church […]