FI Things

On the occasion of his seventh visit to Saint Mary Major, on Wednesday afternoon, Pope Francis met a group of Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate who serve in the Liberian Basilica, exhorting them…

Rorate Caeili posted a translation of an article by Corrado Gnerre from Il Giudizio Cattolico, entitled “Who are the real ‘Christian Ideologues’?”, which addresses Pope Francis’ critique of ideology within the Church. While…

Did you know that the Jordan River Valley is actually the deepest valley on earth? In Christ’s Baptism, creation opens at her depths to receive her Creator; the heavenly Bridegroom “espouses” the earth…

It is with sadness, but confidence that I entrust here to the mercy of God the soul of Gabriel Altieri, a father figure, a spiritual son and a great friend.  After a long fight…

This is the Christmas story in a nutshell: The Infinite One has wed himself to our finite humanity. This is what we’re preparing ourselves for during Advent. And this is why Advent is a time of desire: The…

I have been in Rome for nearly a month now, working on the details of my studies. Nothing definite to report there. On Sunday a group of us were privileged to attend the…

I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’ — though it contains (and in a legend may contain…

I feel like I am caught in a bad fairytale. I am publishing in-full Rorate Caeli’s follow-up on their Tolkien post and linking to it in my original rebuttal of Father X. Follow-up:…

It is really hard to know how to be charitable in these instances. We have gone from The Shire to Mordor in two posts. Back when I was writing on Christopher West’s interpretation…

The Catholic culture war continues to heat up.  John Allen from The Boston Globe has recently noted the that there is a possible “right wing” backlash to the Franciscan pontificate that will pit…

More evidence of the wedge being driven between the Benedictine and Franciscan pontificates can be seen in the recent disclaimer/clarification of Michael Voris in which he refuses to publically criticize Pope Francis.  In…

David Armstrong has an excellent post refuting the “death of the reform of the reform” proclamation by Peter Kwasniewski, which I have discussed here. And thanks be to God, Bishop Peter Elliott has posted a…

Pat Archbold of Creative Minority Report has published another “open letter” to the Holy Father, like the one he published about my community.  This time it is an appeal to regularize the SSPX…

From the pen of Andrea Torneilli: On 16 February, the author of this article sent the Pope Emeritus a letter with some specific questions regarding these interpretations. A response came two days later.…

The following is a reply to David Llewellyn Dodds who has been very generously commenting on my previous Tolkien post.  This reply fits here and if you are interested you can follow the flow…