Matthew Becklo

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Articles

During Lent, the devil is in the discouragement

1 month ago | catholicworldreport.com | Matthew Becklo |Nick Olszyk

During Lent, the devil is in the discouragementIf the devil can’t ensnare us in an unscrupulous shrug, he will happily use a scrupulous huff. (Image: CNS photo/Carlo Allegri, Reuters)As we approach the halfway point of the Lenten season, many of us are experiencing a sort of “mid-Lent crisis.” So many things we had hoped to accomplish remain undone, half-done, or not really done—checked off, in a way, but without the irreproachable purity we imagined for ourselves at the outset.
The heaven-earth dilemma and the scandal of God-become-dirt

1 month ago | catholicworldreport.com | Matthew Becklo |Carl Olson

The heaven-earth dilemma and the scandal of God-become-dirtThe shocking logic of the Incarnation—in tandem with Scripture and Tradition—is precisely what has compelled apostolic Christians to affirm the Real Presence for two thousand years.
This Week at Catholic World Report

2 months ago | us2.campaign-archive.com | Jennifer S. Bryson |Matthew Becklo |Joseph Pearce |Karen Mahoney

By Catholic News Agency on Feb 23, 2025 01:10 pm A makeshift shrine with devotional candles, flowers, and images of Pope Francis appears outside Rome's Gemelli hospital on Feb. 22, 2025 / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNACNA Staff, Feb 23, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA). Pope Francis’ condition “remains critical,” the Holy See Press Office said in a statement issued Sunday evening Rome time. However, it said, he experienced “no further respiratory crisis” since Saturday.
Do Die (Before You Die): A Catholic response to Bryan Johnson

Jan 22, 2025 | catholicworldreport.com | Matthew Becklo |George Weigel

Do Die (Before You Die): A Catholic response to Bryan JohnsonIt’s easy enough simply to dismiss Johnson’s quest for immortality as quixotic, crazy, even downright creepy. Here’s a serious response modeled on Aquinas’ Summa theologiae. A scene from "Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever".
David Lynch’s two visions of life

Jan 17, 2025 | catholicworldreport.com | Matthew Becklo |Catherine Harmon

Director, writer, and actor David Lynch in an August 2007 photo. Lynch died at age 78 on January 15, 2025. (Image: Wikipedia / CC BY 2.0)“In heaven, everything is fine . . .”Either this line means nothing to you, or it calls to mind the uniquely awful—and awfully unique—dread of Eraserhead. Such was the influence of the surrealist filmmaker David Lynch, who passed away this week shortly after evacuating from the LA fires: his films were, if nothing else, an experience not soon forgotten.
“Dilexit Nos” and the scandal of the Sacred Heart

Nov 30, 2024 | aleteia.org | Matthew Becklo

Dilexit Nos (He Loved Us), the Pontiff’s fourth encyclical — a rich meditation on the Sacred Heart of Jesus brimming with Scripture, Tradition, and the saints — has met with very little criticism across the theological spectrum.
Bill Burr and humanity’s “Dirty Jesus Feet”

Nov 17, 2024 | aleteia.org | Matthew Becklo

In his opening monologue for SNL this past weekend, Bill Burr made some interesting remarks — as is his wont — about humanity. Regardless of whether you found his opening monologue funny, or insensitive and crude, I’d like to hone in on one particular bit that struck me as surprisingly profound.
ilm on war, grief, and power of faith

Nov 9, 2024 | aleteia.org | Matthew Becklo

America, as a nation, has been marked in profound ways by both wars and films. It’s renowned worldwide for both the military might of the Pentagon and the cultural might of Hollywood. But what happens when the two intersect, its cameras and rifles suddenly pointing at each other? Predictably, war films tend to fall into one of two camps: movies that glorify or at least defend war, and movies that criticize and even condemn it.
The Highest and Lowest Meet in ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’

Nov 7, 2024 | wordonfire.org | Matthew Becklo

At one point in Dallas Jenkins’ new film The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (in theaters November 8), a tough, surly girl named Imogene—who has just entered the local church for the first time—listens as a nice church kid named Beth explains that their upcoming Christmas pageant is about Jesus. “Everything here is,” Imogene sighs.
Recovering the “both/and” of St. Pope John Paul II’s Veritatis Splendor

Oct 25, 2024 | catholicworldreport.com | Matthew Becklo |Catherine Harmon

Recovering the “both/and” of St. Pope John Paul II’s Veritatis SplendorThe 1993 encyclical was released to combat the rise in moral relativism—in particular, the problematic moral theory of “proportionalism” that conduces to it—and to restate the Church’s moral doctrine. Pope John Paul II at a Papal Audience in July 1985 in St. Peter's Square. (© James G.