Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 210

Is Francis Talking to Me?

Emily Stimpson reports on a visit to an inner city parish in Pittsburgh. A church that can seat 700 has 70 at Mass, and the church is about to close due to lack of support, vandalism and inner city blight. What can be done? After Mass, a small group of elderly people stopped us to [Read More...]

Brandon and Pier Giorgio

Brandon Vogt interviews Abp Peter Sartain on Pier Giorgio Frassati. I’ll be speaking at the Frassati conference at St Mary Star of the Sea in Seattle on Saturday, Oct 19. As for “partying,” he knew how to enjoy life and desired to help others enjoy life, too. We have to be leery of thinking of [Read More...]

The Risk of Redemption

We’ve had a few days now to ponder the pope’s powerful interview last week. It is probably true, as one friend said, that most in the world and in the church will read the headlines and move on with a fuzzy idea that Catholics have finally accepted women priests, gay marriage and contraception and abortion…Alas. [Read More...]

The Parable of the Papal Interview

Joanne McPortland parabalizes on the papal interview: Hear this! A pope went out to give an interview. And as he talked, some of his words fell to the media, and those birds gobbled them up before they could even be heard. Others of his words fell to those who didn’t understand his context. They received his [Read More...]

On Re-reading the Papal Interview

Ok, I’ll be honest, I came away from the first reading of the pope’s interview on Thursday with some mixed emotions. I was a bit worried that he was promoting the kind of “mercy” in the church which is no more than being a nice guy and letting people off the hook. Certainly that is [Read More...]

Pope Francis Makes Another Mess

from the Associated Press: Pope Francis offered an olive branch of sorts to the doctrine-minded, conservative wing of the Catholic Church on Friday as he denounced abortions as a symptom of today’s “throw-away culture” and encouraged Catholic doctors to refuse to perform them. Francis issued a strong anti-abortion message and cited Vatican teaching on the [Read More...]

Pope Francis Makes a Mess

In Brazil Pope Francis encouraged the young people to return to their parishes and dioceses and “make a mess”. What he meant was for them to roll up their sleeves, get involved and start living the radical gospel of Jesus Christ even if it meant turning over a few tables and upsetting preconceived expectations. They [Read More...]

Todd Unctuous on the Papal Interview

Guest blogger Todd Unctuous is top commentator for MSM. With a degree in Media Studies from Scranton Community College, Todd writes for many papers and websites, and is known for his incisive writing, objective reporting and razor sharp comment. It is heartening to know that at last the Roman Catholic Church has a leader who [Read More...]

Where Mercy and Judgement Meet

One of the best ways to analyze a theory is to see if it works. The Holy Father recommends that we priests get out more and embrace those who need forgiveness and healing. We are to welcome all and show the mercy of God to all. I love it. I love the devotion of the [Read More...]

More on That Interview

Stephen White writes perceptively here about the Pope’s interview. Commenting on the Pope’s reluctance to talk about abortion, contraception and gay marriage, The Church’s moral teachings flow from the Gospel. The Church’s moral teachings are a consequence, not the cause, of Christian faith. They rooted in Him and lead us back to Him. The moral teachings [Read More...]