Tag: church structure

Reason #10 to Reject the Reformation: The Grand Finale

Today, we arrive at the last of St. Edmund Campion’s Ten Reasons to reject the Reformation, and it’s a doozy. It turns out, he spent many of the prior nine reasons crescendoing towards this last one, and the result is epic: a sort of cosmic vision of the Catholic Church and the Reformation, with (in… Continue reading Reason #10 to Reject the Reformation: The Grand Finale

Pope Victor and the Second-Century Papacy

Pope St. Victor I In October, I wrote about a fascinating conflict in the first-century church of Corinth. When a dispute broke out within their church, they wrote to Rome. Pope Clement wrote back, issued some orders, and resolved the dispute. Under any circumstances, this would be interesting, because it shows the way that papal… Continue reading Pope Victor and the Second-Century Papacy

Reason #3 to Reject the Reformation: the Visible Church

Catedral de Santa María de Burgos, Burgos, Spain One of the biggest issues separating Catholics and Protestants is on the nature of the Church: did Christ establish a visible Church, containing both the saved and some number of the damned? Or did He establish an invisible Church that’s just the collection of all the saved? That’s… Continue reading Reason #3 to Reject the Reformation: the Visible Church

Reason #2 to Reject the Reformation: Scriptural Interpretation

Yesterday, I began a multi-part series looking at St. Edmund Campion’s Ten Reasons against the Reformation. The first reason, addressed yesterday, was the canon of Scripture: the Reformers took books out of the Bible (and not even the same books as one another), and end up leaving no coherent authority upon which to have a… Continue reading Reason #2 to Reject the Reformation: Scriptural Interpretation

How Your Online Tone Could Send You to Hell

The before-and-after photos used by Rorate Caeli.After the Soviet Union had Nikolai Yezhov executed,his image was carefully purged from official photographs. A few weeks ago, Msgr. Charles Pope wrote a blog post on his blog (which is on the Archdiocese of Washington’s website). It quickly disappeared, leading the traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli to decry “the… Continue reading How Your Online Tone Could Send You to Hell

Where is the Papacy in the Bible?

To celebrate the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis, here is a copy of a talk that I gave at lunch today on the Scriptural origins of the papacy: ““Where is THAT in the Bible: The Pope” Sharing the Catholic faith with non-Catholics, even non-Catholic Christians, can seem overwhelming at times. There are just so… Continue reading Where is the Papacy in the Bible?

The Cross, the Church, and the Mystery of Suffering

On the most beautiful things about Catholicism is that it gives meaning to suffering in a way that no other system does. No system explains suffering as well as religion does, no world religion explains it as well as Christianity, and no Christian denomination explains it as well as the Catholic Church does. Within an… Continue reading The Cross, the Church, and the Mystery of Suffering

Why Bishops Don’t Say, “The Lord be With You”

When we switched to the new translation of the Mass this past Advent, much was said about the fact that now, when the priest says, “The Lord be with you,” we respond, “and with your spirit,” instead of “and also with you.”  In a 2005 newsletter announcing this change, the USCCB explained: Eugeniusz Kazimirowski,Divine Mercy (1934) Where… Continue reading Why Bishops Don’t Say, “The Lord be With You”

Catholicism, Protestantism, and Saint Paul’s Vision of the Church

At or near the heart of the Reformation is a debate over Saint Paul, and how we should understand his writings, particularly his statements about justification in his Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians.  This is an interesting exegetical question, but in my opinion, it overlooks an obvious reality: St. Paul would never… Continue reading Catholicism, Protestantism, and Saint Paul’s Vision of the Church