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1 week ago | 
catholiceducation.org | Anthony Esolen |Msgr. Charles Fink |Theodore Dalrymple |Jeff Mirus
Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504, Public Domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. I am relieved to find that Pope Francis has refrained from saying that someday we may be conferring, or pretending to confer, Holy Orders upon women. It keeps alive the possibility that the churches East and West may reunite. It averts an inevitable and devastating schism.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
catholicculture.org | Jeff Mirus
Years ago we developed a commentary category on CatholicCulture.org called “Quick Hits”, the goal being to make a series of rapid-fire points about the news, without belaboring those points. We haven’t used this category often lately, but the last ten days have offeredtoo many opportunities to resist. Consider:
Pope Francis and Joe BIden:
Many excellent Catholics have resolved to stop calling negative attention to Pope Francis (or to stop saying negative things about him).
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Jan 11, 2025 | 
brownpelicanla.com | Jeff Mirus
By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, Jan 10, 2025Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org. One of the most encouraging recent news stories is this one: “Philadelphia archbishop launches plan for ‘missionary hubs’.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
catholicculture.org | Jeff Mirus
One of the most encouraging recent news stories is this one: “Philadelphia archbishop launches plan for ‘missionary hubs’. Without intending an excessively invidious comparison, I will mention that many dioceses place a great deal of emphasis on their programs for materially assisting those who are materially poor, but far fewer seem to emphasize their programs for spiritually assisting those who are spiritually poor.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
brownpelicanla.com | Jeff Mirus
By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, Jan 07, 2025Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
catholicculture.org | Jeff Mirus
It’s amazing how out of touch with current reality we can become as we age. I’ve mentioned before Hilaire Belloc’s interesting thesis that people in their sixties tend to still fight the battles in which they were engaged in their twenties and thirties, even though current problems might be quite different.
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Dec 6, 2024 | 
catholicculture.org | Jeff Mirus
Pope Francis has recommended that priests should limit their homilies to ten minutes: “After 8 minutes, preaching gets dispersive and no one understands. Never go over 10 minutes, ever! This is very important.” Of course, these were simply informal comments. There is no question here of an ecclesiastical directive or a formal canonical limit.
Personally, I’m inclined to agree that homilies should be fairly short—St. John Chrysostom notwithstanding to the contrary.
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Dec 3, 2024 | 
catholicculture.org | Jeff Mirus
Reading Fr. Joseph Fessio’s biography (see my brief review) caused me to reflect on my own experience of the personality traits we must develop if we are to achieve any success in the apostolate. Fr. Fessio has met a great deal of opposition over the decades, and sometimes that opposition has derailed his plans. But he has never wasted time on either righteous denunciation or sterile self-pity.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
brownpelicanla.com | Jeff Mirus
By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, Nov 26, 2024Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.orgThe “ordinary magisterium” of the Church is a rather flexible and capacious entity. It includes all official ecclesiastical texts which have been formally approved by the Pope.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
catholicculture.org | Jeff Mirus
As we reported on Wednesday, the canonization of both Pier Giorgio Frassati (†1925) and Carlo Acutis (†2006) have been approved and scheduled. Blessed Pier Giorgio will be canonized during the Jubilee for Youth (July 28 to August 3 in 2025) and Blessed Carlo during the Jubilee for Teenagers in St. Peter’s Square on April 27, 2025. The first died at the age of 24 and the second at 15.
