Category: Viewpoint
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Viewpoint: The Ongoing Problem of Liturgical Clericalism
Liturgical clericalism occurs when the role of those in holy orders overpowers the Church’s rites and disempowers the baptized from the full and active participation in the liturgy for which the twentieth-century liturgical movement and Vatican II called.
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Viewpoint: New Bible Translation – The Message – Is a Notable Achievement
I recommend highly The Message: Catholic/Ecumenical Edition, and find it very helpful for reading alongside The New American Bible, with which we are familiar from the liturgy.
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Viewpoint: A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway
Why are Christians in the West not aware of this terrible holocaust? For one thing the media do not report the persecution of Christians, and consider such news “politically incorrect.” Political leaders, for various reasons, are deaf to cries for help.
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Viewpoint: What is the Definition of a Really Active Catholic?
So, if you are a Catholic who cannot do much more than go to Mass on Sundays–but put your Christian heart and soul into your “secular” activities, then you are a really active Catholic.
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Viewpoint: Are Pope Francis’ Achievements Substantial or Mere Symbolism?
More than one commentator has suggested recently that Pope Francis is all symbolism and little substance. I disagree. (For one thing, I think symbolism is substance.)
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Viewpoint: Corpus Christi and the “Blessed Sacrament of the Mass”
This Sunday is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), the occasion each year when periods of exposition, adoration, and Benediction are most common. This would be a good time in which to reflect on the practice of Eucharistic devotion–and to ask what the Church might learn from popular…
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Viewpoint: Need a Key to the Trinity? Start with Jesus
The Trinity is indeed a mystery, but not in the sense of being a giant theological puzzle, but–according to the theological meaning of the word “mystery”–a reality so rich, bright, multifaceted, and all-encompassing that we can never fully take in.
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Viewpoint: Holy Week a Living Reality, not a Passion Play
In the Holy Week liturgy, the event stands in the present, and we are participants.