Fr. Jeffrey Kirby: The Rise of the Ultramontanists

By Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, The Catholic Thing, April 14, 2024

Father Jeffrey Kirby, STD, is a moral theologian and the Pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish in Indian Land, South Carolina. He is the host of the daily devotional, The Morning Offering with Father Kirby. Father Kirby has written several books, including Kingdom of Happiness: Living the Beatitudes in Everyday Life.

It’s a peculiar era in the Church that witnesses the rise of ultramontanism. Sound theology has laid that heresy to rest many times and yet it keeps popping up. Regrettably, there will always be popes who welcome ultramontanism and the unconditional adherence that comes with it, just as there will always be those souls who are more than eager to kowtow to the man who happens to be pope.