Catholic Church

January 22, 2020

Pope Francis Hopes to Anoint a New Economic Model, by Henry Tricks

By Henry Tricks, The Economist - It is here, in March 2020, that Pope Francis will host a gathering of students, academics and socially conscious entrepreneurs. They will draw up what the dark-robed friars of Assisi’s Sacred Convent hope will be a magna carta for a new type of economy: one that reproduces the small-scale market economy and social harmony of Assisi. “The economy of Francesco” will be named in homage to the nature-loving saint… The explicit aim is to find more sustainable ways of living that ease the burden on the poor, via the development of a “circular economy” in which all benefit, including the planet. The implicit one is to explore alternatives to the free-market capitalist system—even if that model has helped lift swathes of humanity out of poverty.

January 21, 2020

Bishop Joseph Strickland: The Real Presence Of Jesus Christ In The Eucharist – Continued

By Bishop Joseph Strickland, The Wanderer Newspaper - Jesus still tells His disciples what He taught the first disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you,” to which many of the disciples responded, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” As a result of this, “many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (John 6: 22-71).

January 21, 2020

Why Do Christians Believe in Hell? by Michael Pakaluk

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing - Why Do Christians Believe in Hell? Because Christendom has affirmed it, Jesus clearly teaches the reality of Hell in the Bible, and Hell’s reality resonates with an honest account of our own experience… That’s not the answer theologian David Bentley Hart gave earlier this month, when the New York Times offered him a perch to discuss the misguided beliefs of his fellow Christians. The Bible is so unclear about Hell, he wrote, while it is clear about universal salvation, that the doctrine of Hell must be purely an expression of the ill will of Christians. They hate their fellow human beings so much that they want them to spend eternity in torment.

January 21, 2020

False Shepherd, Part III: ‘We Are in Schism’, by Joseph M. Hanneman

By Joseph M. Hanneman, Church Militant - "We are in schism." Father John A. Hardon, S.J., minced no words when summing up the situation between Rome and the Catholic Church in the United States in the late 1990s. Few understood the inner machinations of the Holy See better than Hardon, a highly respected theologian and author of dozens of books on the Catholic Faith… After unsuccessfully lobbying the curia of Pope St. John Paul II to remove Illinois Bp. Daniel L. Ryan for sexual misconduct, Fr. Hardon told associates the pope felt powerless to force reform on the American bishops. "The Holy Father wants to prevent a de facto break — a formal, explicit schism — with Rome," he said.