An excerpt from the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XII Munificentissimus Deus defining the Assumption of Mary, long taught by the ordinary magisterium of the Church, as a dogma of faith....
The publication of The Da Vinci Code in 2003 and the New Age movement both rekindled interest in an ancient religious movement known as Gnosticism. A second century bishop named Irenaeus wrote a massive rebuttal of the claims of the gnostics which we do well...
Where did December 25 come from as the celebration of Christmas, the birthday of Jesus? What are the origins of the feast of Christ's Navity?...
The Second Vatican Council is often called a pastoral council since it issued so many practical directives for the renewal of the day to day life of the church. Many of the objectives of the council fathers have been implemented since Vatican II's close in...
People often think of the Catholic Church primarily in terms of being an institution. While the Church does have an institutional dimension, it is entirely at the service of proclaiming the word of God. It is a prophetic institution....
The Marian devotion of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, is beautifully manifest in his previously articulated "six reasons for not forgetting" Mary. In a 1984 interview with Vittorio Messori, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, identified Our...
Advent reminds us to be vigilant and awake. We should be watchful, longing and yearning for the coming of Christ says St. Ephrem the Syrian....
This Advent reading on the two comings of Christ is an excerpt from Cyril of Jerusalem's famous catechetical instruction of adults getting ready for baptism around AD 360. Cyril contrasts Christ's first coming in humility with Jesus' second coming in glory....
In 1969, then Fr. Josef Ratzinger, theologian and peritus (theological advisor to the bishops) at the Second Vatican Council, predicted that the Church of the future would be much smaller than it was in the sixties, at least in the western, developed world. But, the...
Augustine, commenting on the psalms command to sing to God songs of joy, notes that the jubilation in our hearts sometimes overflows the capacity of all words, yet we cannot remain silent. The Church recalls such songs of joy on the feast of St....