De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

I thought this video from Fr. Paul Nicholson provided a very clear explanation of where we are right now. He explains the work done by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI as well as what is going on right now and how we should react: "The voice of the faithful must sound the alarm!!"

Reflecting on the Pope's Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium , I wondered if I might raise a point for discussion? In my last post , I attempted to address the political and economic criticism levelled at the document from some quarters. It appeared to me, that this criticism came from a perspective of those who considered Capitalism as the answer to all the worlds ills, convinced perhaps by its apparent success in the face of historic rivalry from more Marxist based systems.  I attempted to illustrate the consistent criticism of extreme models of Capitalism, along with Socialism, the Church has always exhorted. I did this by referring to perhaps the first criticism of rampant Capitalism in the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, Rerum novarum   (1891) which was written in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution and addressed evils like child labour, unsafe working conditions, long hours and health and safety. In many ways, Karl Marx' Communist Manifesto, Das Cap...

CNS reports Pope Francis at his weekly public audience in St. Peter's Square yesterday, elaborated on his previous week's talk on the subject of the "church as mother." The Pope said the Church should approach its members with the face of a patient, merciful and understanding mother, who always forgives her erring children and never ceases to pray that they resume the path of Christian living. "I like this image very much," he said, "because I think it tells us not only how the Church is, but also what sort of face the Church, this Church of ours, should have, more so every day." A mother teaches her children the right way of life "with tenderness, with affection, with love," he said, because she "didn't learn it from books, but learned it from her own heart." "The university of mammas is the heart itself," the pope said, in one of several uses of the informal Italian term "mamma." Pope F...

“Humanity should question itself, once more, about the absurd and always unfair phenomenon of war, on whose stage of death and pain only remains standing the negotiating table that could and should have prevented it.”  ― John Paul II John Paul II was my Pope in lots of ways. He was Pope from when I was 7 years old, to his death when I was 34. When I went through my questioning years, it was John Paul II who brought me back, through his writing in Crossing The Threshold of Hope . When the Iraq war was mooted, I felt the motivation was ludicrous. Reading whatever I could, it seemed very clear that the justification given was paper thin. I was not sure of the true motivation, but President Bush was attending to some unfinished business without regard for international law, or the facts as I understood them.  I felt incredibly proud when my instincts were backed up with the most public and serious condemnations of the invasion of Iraq, which came from Pope John ...