“Facts and great personages in world history occur, as it were, twice . . . the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” The Synod on Synodality seems destined to confirm Marx’s words (themselves a revision of Hegel). The tragedy arises from the deep theological and philosophical division . . . . Continue Reading »
Recently, while reading Sally Rooney’s hugely acclaimed novels for the first time, I messaged a friend to say how bleak I was finding them. He replied that his impression of the books was different. In a way, we were both right. On the one hand, the novels have shafts of light and humor; . . . . Continue Reading »
De Lubac warned of the danger of transforming the search for the kingdom of God into a search for secular social utopias. The participants of the ongoing Synod on Synodality could learn from his Christocentric vision of the Church. Continue Reading »
What bishop Aguiar did not explain was why fulfilling the Great Commission through evangelization and catechesis—hitherto understood to be essential components of any World Youth Day—was “proselytism.” Continue Reading »
Opera has traditionally had little interest in Christian orthodoxy. So when composer Francis Poulenc wrote his masterpiece, Dialogues des Carmélites, the work’s celebration of heroic piety defied the secular spirit of the art form. Continue Reading »
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.J., Synod-2023’s relator general, said that the Synod’s purpose was not changing Catholic teaching but “listening.” To which one must ask, “listening to what end”? Continue Reading »
Archbishop Fernández's appointment to Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith is a terrifyingly bad joke—in some ways the culmination of the decade-long tragicomedy of this pontificate. Continue Reading »
The Synodal Assembly in October will have to rescue the Synod from its Working Document. This has been done before, and it can and should be done again, in fidelity to the spirit and letter of Vatican II. Continue Reading »