Catholic Church

By Darrick Taylor, Crisis Magazine - Few novelists have been feted with praise as much as the nineteenth-century Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881). Numerous intellectuals regarded him as the prophet of their age, quite literally. Albert Camus proclaimed Dostoevsky, not Karl Marx, the “prophet of the twentieth century.” The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche despised Christianity but admired the Orthodox Dostoevsky, saying he was “the only psychologist from whom I have anything to learn.”

By Father Roger Landry, EWTN News - We live at a time in which Christmas crèches have become so much a part of Catholic piety that many believe that they must have existed from the first centuries of Christianity... But they are an “invention” of St. Francis of Assisi, who, 800 years ago this December, created a living Nativity in the mountainous Italian village of Greccio, located about halfway between Rome and Assisi. The topography and architecture of Greccio — where Francis would frequently stay to preach and to pray — reminded him of Bethlehem, which he had visited four years before.

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture - After writing my assessment on Monday of the new DDF text on blessings, Fiducia Supplicans, I’ve spent some time following the reactions. Nobody will be surprised that a few bishops have celebrated the DDF statement as, in effect, making the sky the limit, along with other LGBTQ+ advocates. That is not what the text says, but all serious observers expect it to precipitate precisely this sort of result. After all, human understanding is always contextual. One of our intellectual capacities is the ability to read between the lines.

By Jason Scott Jones, The Stream - That’s why I’m on many levels scandalized by the example of Pope Francis. The latest Vatican action, making room (with some Jesuitical caveats) for blessings of same-sex couples, has stunned and traumatized serious believers around the world. As John Zmirak wrote here, this Vatican action will open up Catholic clergy to legal persecution (like Christian bakers and wedding planners), stripping them of a key First Amendment defense.