Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 22

Ten Things to Remember About Married Catholic Priests

Pope Francis has said that he may consider the ordination of some married men. There is lots of room for confusion here. So here are ten things to remember about this matter: Celibacy for priests is a discipline not a doctrine – The Pope can’t change doctrine. He can change discipline. A discipline is something [Read More...]

Are Married Priests the Magic Bullet?

People have asked my opinion about Pope Francis’ suggestion that maybe ordaining older married men would help. Really. I’ve written about the topic of married priests so much already. Go here and here and here and here and here and here and there’s more. Just search my blog for “married priests.” If you want to know what I think. Click away!

Is Eternity Forever?

Someone wondered the other day why hell had to last for all eternity. Wasn’t that extra cruel of God? Why couldn’t the damned simply be eliminated, crushed, annihilated? Another person commented that he didn’t think heaven was such an attractive idea because he thought he would probably get bored. Hmmm. One first has to deal [Read More...]

Slubgrip on Individualism

My Lent book, Slubgrip Instructs is laid out with one reading per day from Shrove Tuesday through Easter Monday. In it the demon Slubgrip is teaching Popular Culture 101 (known in the slang of Bowelbages University as Pop Cult 101) For a taster, here is today’s reading, in which Slubrip lectures his unruly class on Individualism. Chamber [Read More...]

Catholic Schools and Dante’s Deep Divide

C.S.Lewis’ friend Dorothy Sayers was one of the great translators of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Her version includes excellent notes and a memorable map of hell. Sayers’ map of the nine circles of hell makes visual one of the most important teaching points of Dante’s great vision. Dante categorizes the sins with an inexorable logic. The sins of lust, [Read More...]

Jiminy Cricket Theology

The other day I had a conversation with an intelligent, well educated young woman who was questioning the Catholic Church’s moral teaching. She said about the church’s teaching on same sex attraction, “But I don’t know if I really accept that.” Now, I don’t really object to a person who rejects the teaching of the [Read More...]

Puppies, Kittens and the Circles of Sin

It occurred to me that one of the reasons so few Catholics go to confession is that they don’t really think they have done anything wrong. Then when they do come to confession many of them make very poor confessions and the first thing they say is, “I’m not really sure why I’ve come to [Read More...]

A Schism in the Catholic Church?

Headlines last week were proclaiming that a group of cardinals believe Pope Francis should step down to avoid a catastrophic schism in the Catholic Church. Schism? What schism? In fact, the modern Catholic Church is already in schism, but it is an internal schism, hidden to most people. The divide is very clear and yet [Read More...]

The Struggles of Our Parish School

The National Catholic Register reports on President Trump’s visit to a Catholic school here along with his Education Secretary, Betsy deVos. Let me share what it is like being the pastor of a small parochial school in Greenville, South Carolina. Our parish is just 500 families. That is small for a Catholic parish. We have a [Read More...]

The Power of Simple Authenticity

Why am I a Christian today? Why am I a Catholic today? It is because of the witness of authenticity. Put very simply–I am a Christian today because of the lived witness of my parents and I am a Catholic today because of the lived witness of two remarkable women–a mother and daughter. I am [Read More...]