Catholic teaching on a range of topics.
Source: Ascension Presents via YouTube.com Is Judas in Hell? The overwhelming consensus over time is that he must be. But has the Church proclaimed that he definitely is? Surprisingly… no. Why? Jesus teaches us that, while we can evaluate “a tree by its fruits,” it is left to God alone […]
Friends, we continue our celebration of the Easter season on this Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. Mercy, St. Thomas Aquinas says, is compassion in regard to someone else’s suffering; thus, God’s mercy is his compassion reaching out to us precisely in our suffering. Keep that in mind as […]
Friends, Happy Easter! Christ is risen—Alleluia, Alleluia! Recently, I had a public conversation with the popular historian Tom Holland. Someone from the crowd asked him, “What’s the call of our time?” and he said, “Let Christianity be weird.” When I was coming of age, there was a tendency to reduce […]
Source: Bishop Barron via YouTube.com Friends, on Palm Sunday, the culminating point of Lent, the Church reads from one of the great Passion narratives from the synoptic Gospels. But I want to look at the second reading today—a passage from the second chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, the […]
Source: Bishop Robert Barron’s, Word on Fire Show via YouTube.com. Friends, we just marked the 60th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, the Second Vatican Council. Six decades later, can we say the Council was a success? A failure? Something in between? On today’s episode of “The Word on […]
Friends, many people in the Church, including the Holy Father, have been talking about “synodality.” But what is it? What does it mean? How can it help the Church, and what are possible dangers? That’s what Brandon Vogt and I discuss on today’s episode of “The Word on Fire Show.” […]
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via YouTube Merry Christmas, friends! As you gather today with family and friends, it is likely that someone, at some point, will bring in a newborn. And everybody will want to see the baby. The whole room will stop whatever they are doing to see this […]
Source: Fr. Timothy V. Vaverek via thecatholicthing.org. Reprinted with permission. Since the 1960s, progressive Catholics have promoted a new morality to replace older, normative approaches that they believe foster guilt and exclusion. Prominent cardinals and bishops have embraced this “New Paradigm” and are using the international synodal process to spread […]
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via youtube.com Friends, why is art important? An uptick in vandalism against famous pieces of art, calling to mind outbreaks of iconoclasm throughout history, has raised questions about art’s value and purpose. On today’s “Word on Fire Show,” I discuss with Brandon Vogt why art matters. […]
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via YouTube.com Friends, in many parts of the world the Catholic Church is shrinking. Parishes are closing or merging, pastors are devising strategies of consolidation. But for the Church to flourish, we can’t just manage decline. We need strategies for growth. That’s what Brandon Vogt and […]
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via YouTube.com. Friends, our first reading and our Gospel for this weekend have a special resonance for our time because they both speak clearly about life after death. Our dominant secularist or materialist ideology says that matter in motion is all there is; the world came […]
Source: Mark Leen via YouTube.com. A Catholic priest’s homily in Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland has created a social media explosion of angry opponents and sympathetic supporters. A few examples below. Many other responses on all social media – just search for Fr. Sean Sheehy. Header image: Mark Leen via YouTube.com