News

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture - In Phil Lawler’s post last Friday on A new Vatican move against the Latin Mass, he raised the question of whether a bishop must obey the directives of Curial officials in Rome. In theory, the answer is “No”, though in practice it can be “Yes” under various circumstances—which circumstances also include a prudential judgment about the consequences of the “No”. Let me explain... All authority in the Church is in one important sense personal. I do not mean that ecclesiastical authority does not depend on the office held by the person.

By Mary Cuff, Crisis Magazine - For more than (700) years, the Franciscan monastery of Santa Chiara has stood overlooking the glorious waters of the Amalfi Coast in the town of Ravello, the “city of music” and the “pearl of the Amalfi.” Poor Clares came to Ravello in 1297, just after the death of St. Francis, and the monastery and town have flourished together for almost a thousand years... the monastery now stands at the brink of suppression and destruction, thanks to recent interventions by Rome, which reached a crescendo just last week when two of its nuns were defrocked for attempting to remain in the cloister in which they had vowed to live out the rest of their lives.