Editorial

Head of a Church can be a Scandal

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), has launched the latest salvo of harsh criticism against Pope Francis as he spoke in Turin (Italy) on 11 May 11, 2023 quoting Joseph Ratzinger that the pope also can become a scandal. He was speaking of the case […]

Abraham’s Battle for the Other

Ancient Greek tragedies relate to the eternal and the possible through external and accidental means. They lacked self-subjectivity and inwardness. Thus the ancients set their subjectivity outside of themselves. If anxiety is dialectically defined as fate, it is impossible to arrive at the concepts of guilt and sin as that would lead to the contradicting […]

The Vampire of life

The bloodthirsty vampires tie human intestines around their head and neck to suck their blood. It is believed that rakshasas perform a ritual dance with the new victim’s intestines after filling their stomach with blood. In the Capital Marx calls capital “vampire”. It is not a metaphor, but the rigorous formulation of the relation of […]

The Question of Christian Apathy to Tragic Situations

During the Concilium World Congress in Brussels in 1970, J.B. Metz delivered a talk entitled ‘Toward the Presence of the Church in Society’. He sought to describe the theological basis for the topic as follows: “I would like to present the thesis that the Church must understand and verify herself in the ‘systems’ of our […]

Authority Worldly and Spiritual

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is a novel where the difference between physical power and moral power is apparent: ‘He was often tempted, while they were passing backwards and forwards on his body, to seize forty or fifty of the first that came in his reach, and dash them against the ground.’ But he displays his […]

The Weeds of Synodality

This phrase is taken from the working document prepared for The Seven Continental Assemblies that will be held in the month of March, 2023. There is no dearth in it of very clear expressions of rejection. “I distrust the Synod. I think it has been called to bring about further change to Christ’s teachings and […]

“We Don’t Want Decisions Made Only About Us, But With Us”

“Lack of participation is a pain point overall, but conversely it also expresses a longing for participation,” Women, young people and volunteers in particular complain about their lack of participation. “We don’t want decisions to be made only about us, but with us.” This is a quote from The report of the German Bishops’ Conference […]

The Priority of the Saying over the Said

When this writer met the late Cardinal J. Parecattil in 1986, he was given a letter addressed to the Secretary of the Oriental Congregation for Oriental Churches of that time. It was a reply to Abp Miroslav Marusyn’s letter about the final verdict on Holy Qurbana. Cardinal asked him: who are we to pronounce a […]

Salesians elect Maltese priest Fabio Attard as Don Bosco’s 11th successor

Pope Francis does not accept Cardinal Koch’s resignation: could continue at least until anniversary of Council of Nicea