What is Pope Francis doing, with his gestures, interviews, and wild synods? To understand this pope, we first need to understand the papacy. To do that, let us consider two versions of what “hierarchy” means. In the first version, hierarchy simply means authority. Hierarchy means that the Pope is the main guy in the universal … Read more
On the flight home from the Holy Land, a journalist asked Pope Francis the running question, “What is going to happen with communion to the divorced and remarried?” Francis responded, “The Synod will be on the family, the problems of the family, the treasures of the family, the present situation of the family…. I have … Read more
The two upcoming synods of bishops on “The Pastoral Care of the Family in the Context of the New Evangelization” needs to discuss many serious topics other than communion for the divorced and remarried. I hope they revisit the standard recommendation that couples in invalid second “marriages” should “live as brother and sister.” This is … Read more
Alasdair MacIntyre’s 1981 manifesto After Virtue famously ends with the argument that we are “waiting for another St. Benedict.” At some point, the old Roman Empire was lost. “Men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral … Read more
A recent interview of Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga in a German newspaper underscores the stress lines surrounding the upcoming synods, in October 2014 and October 2015, “On Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” It can help us to think more clearly about what those Synods are and are not about. In … Read more
The great NFP debate would be greatly helped by some serious reflections on ends: teleology, as the philosophers like to say. On one side stand the Providentialists. At their more strident, they accuse NFP users of a “contraceptive mentality.” Just because periodic abstinence (the means) is legitimate doesn’t mean that its every use is appropriate. Some … Read more