What does the devil get out of the Paris massacre?
(Some non-canonical thoughts, if I may, on the atrocity committed in Paris last week.) One need not invoke the devil to explain most moral evils in the world. Mankind is perfectly capable of wreaking...
View ArticleA note on convicts as witnesses at Catholic weddings
It’s not clear to me what exactly has happened here but it appears that the bishops of a region in Italy, one hard-pressed by the Mafia, have forbidden certain classes of criminals from serving in...
View ArticleNote: Avoiding the requirements of Mitis would not be easy for bishops
If Pope Francis’ Mitis Iudex becomes law it will require, among other things, that arch/bishops personally assess, and in some cases adjudicate, certain kinds of marriage nullity petitions. Now...
View ArticleWho is satisfied with Mitis Iudex?
Ross Douthat’s speculations on Pope Francis’ “marriage endgame” are interesting (as usual) and in some respects I agree with them. But in one major respect, I disagree. Douthat writes: “Fast-tracking...
View ArticleSilence is not much evidence of anything, so why suggest otherwise?
The following are not thoughts on Pope Francis but rather about a recent report by John Allen on Pope Francis. Allen, associate editor of the on-line news site Crux, recently argued that “Francis...
View ArticleSeven quick thoughts on the most recent papal presser
Frankly, I don’t know how he does it. When I fly to Europe I have to sleep all the way over. Not Pope Francis. Anyway, may I offer some comments on some topics mentioned in the latest mid-air papal...
View ArticleMisunderstanding the (alleged) ‘Congo contraception’ case
Even by the standards of his reign, the presser Pope Francis conducted on his return flight from Mexico has provoked an unusual number of questions. I wish to address only one of those here....
View ArticleFirst thoughts on the English version of Pope Francis’ Amoris laetitia.
There are as one might expect in a document of this length and written with access to the kinds of resources a pope commands, many good things said about marriage in Amoris. Whether those things speak...
View ArticleThe law before ‘Amoris’ is the law after
Holy Communion is to be withheld from divorced-and-remarried Catholics in virtue of Canon 915 which, as has been explained countless times, does not require Catholic ministers to read the souls of...
View ArticleThe slow decline of the Ordinary Magisterium
The Magisterium of the Catholic Church, the teaching authority left by Jesus Christ to his Church and principally exercised by popes and the college of bishops, proceeds in two ways: ordinarily, the...
View ArticleYes, the Eucharist is ‘powerful medicine’, which means…
Some seem upset that I agreed with Pope Francis that the Eucharist is “powerful medicine” for sinners, a figure of speech the pope used in Amoris laetitiae fn. 351 (see also his Evangelii gaudium 47)....
View ArticleGeorge is right, Georg is wrong
George Weigel has an excellent critique of Abp. Georg Gänswein’s weird theory of, of—of what, exactly?—a Janus-like, bifurcated, co-papacy featuring Francis as the ‘active’ member and Benedict XVI as...
View ArticleThe great majority of Christian marriages are valid
Last time a ranking prelate (Cdl. Kasper) opined that half of all marriages were null his attribution of such a reckless assertion to Pope Francis himself could be dismissed as hearsay, deflected as...
View ArticleThe missing middle term
For some twenty years I have responded to charges that American tribunals are lax in upholding marriage by, among other things, correlating the jump in American annulment numbers to several changes put...
View ArticleInstruction, not insults
Canon 868 § 1, n. 2, recognizing the gravity of the obligations that come with baptism and not wishing to see those obligations too-lightly assumed, states: “For an infant to be baptized licitly …...
View ArticleA few notes on journalistic points made today
In a day fraught with canonical confusion may I offer a few observations on some journalistic issues I noticed along the way? First, I find John Allen’s pooh-poohing of widespread concerns that...
View ArticlePapal comments on cohabitation and civil marriage suggest a direction
The pope’s most recent comments on marriage point in a disturbing direction but let’s address two important matters first. Point One. Cohabitation is not marriage. Largely overlooked amid the furor...
View ArticleSome canonical thoughts VP Biden’s recent deed
To officiate at the “same-sex wedding” of two White House staffers Monday, Vice-President Joseph Biden obtained special authorization from the District of Columbia wherein he resides and the event took...
View ArticleGood grief, if even Protestants think the time has come…
“I am not a Roman Catholic, let alone a canon lawyer,” writes First Things contributor Carl Trueman, “but I am reliably informed that the bishop of the diocese to which [Vice President Joseph Biden]...
View ArticleMay I demur re Mirus this once?
Pretty much everything Dr. Jeff Mirus writes is worth reading, but his latest column, correctly defending Pope Francis against charges of heresy based on his endorsement of the Buenos Aires Directive,...
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