"Catholics and Protestants, as bodies, hold nothing in common in religion, however they may seem to do so." Image: Newman kneeling before Fr Dominic Barberi, who received him into the Church in Littlemore in 1845. From the parish of Littlemore. Editors' Notes What follows is an extract from the fifth of Newman’s series of discourses …
"When the Pope dies the Church is widowed." Image: Cardinal Journet, by Armand Niquille, Wiki Commons. Editors' Notes This part of our series on papal elections takes a diversion into an important question: What is the state of the Church during a papal interregnum? In the extract below, taken from his book The Church of …
Continue reading What is the Church like during a period of sede vacante? Journet & Cajetan tell us
"Nothing is easier than to use the word, and mean nothing by it." Image: Bust of Newman at Trinity College, Oxford where he was an undergraduate, and where one of our editors lived for a term. Wiki Commons, Public Domain Editors' Notes This is the third part of Discourse II (‘Theology a Branch of Knowledge’) of John …
Continue reading John Henry Newman, Anti-Modernist – Part III
"Faith is an intellectual act, its object truth, and its result knowledge." Image: Wiki Commons, Public Domain Editors' Notes This is the second part of Discourse II (‘Theology a Branch of Knowledge’) of John Henry Newman's The Idea of a University, in which he considers the arguments of those who would exclude the teaching of …
Continue reading John Henry Newman, Anti-Modernist – Part II
"It is very plain, that a Divine Being and a University so circumstanced cannot co-exist." Image: Wiki Commons, Public Domain Editors' Notes In Discourse II (‘Theology a Branch of Knowledge’) of his The Idea of a University, John Henry Newman considers the arguments of those who would exclude the teaching of theology from university – …
"... a sign of danger, secret pride, or coldness of charity." Murillo, Wiki Commons. Some line breaks added below, with some headings taken from the original Table of Contents. The following extract from Fr Coleridge's book on the ministry of St John the Baptist sheds an interesting light on more "recent" devotions adopted by the …
Continue reading St John the Baptist and recent devotions – Fr H.J. Coleridge SJ, 1882
"The trouble with your 'return to the sources' is that you used the phrase to hide your intent." Image: Dancing Skeletons - Judith's image in the extract. Wiki Commons. The following extract is taken from Fr Bryan Houghton's fascinating novel Judith's Marriage. It depicts a part of a conversation taking place during Vatican II between …
Continue reading Tradition and Antiquarianism in “Judith’s Marriage”, Fr Bryan Houghton
“It expresses either faith in a false religious body or rebellion against the true Church.” Photo by Andriy Tod on Unsplash Editors Notes In January 2023, the YouTube apologist Mr Michael Lofton made the following comments: "[O]ne can attend an SSPX mass in some qualified cases (see the Monsignor Perl document we have discussed), as …
Sometimes it can feel like Heaven uses dates in a providential way. Editors' Notes 13th May 1917 was the date of the first apparition at Fatima, in which Our Lady brought a vital message to a suffering world. But on the same day, Eugenio Pacelli, later Pius XII, was made a bishop by Benedict XV. …
Continue reading Why was St Robert Bellarmine declared a Doctor of the Church? Pius XI
"A consolatory thought for those who see their span of life crumbling away under their feet - and they, apparently, doing nothing." Image: Rubens, St Gregory of Nazianzus Wiki Commons CC Editor's Note: St Basil and St Gregory had a lifelong friendship, which nonetheless included tension towards the end of St Basil’s life. In 379, …
Continue reading St Gregory Nazianzen and the Crisis in the Church – Cardinal Newman