Pope Benedict XVI Archives - Ethics & Public Policy Center
What the Magi Teach Us
The Magi, wrote Pope Benedict XVI, are not mythical figures in “a meditation presented under the guise of stories.” Rather, the Magi story helps us to “understand the mystery of Jesus more deeply.”
Books for the Summer of Our Discontent
EPPC Distinguished Senior Fellow George Weigel recommends several books that he lately has found reassuring, challenging, illuminating, and in some cases just plain fun: which is to say, apt reading in, and for, this troubled moment.
Games Intellectuals Play
The proponents of a confessionally Catholic state as the optimum form of government are small in number. But they’ve demonstrated an impressive ability to rile up the debate about the current American political situation, and about Catholic social doctrine generally, so a few questions are in order.
Joseph Ratzinger, Theological Reformer
In the War of the Conciliar Succession, there are true reformers, and then there are the forces of deconstruction. Joseph Ratzinger is emphatically a true Catholic reformer.
Embracing the Kind of Redeemer God Appointed
The Gospel readings of Lent remind us that opposition to Jesus and his mission frequently grew out of the desire for a redeemer who was more like what various characters in the drama thought a redeemer should be.
Transforming Quarantine Into Retreat
This bruising Lent, in which “fasting” has assumed unprecedented new forms, seems likely to be followed by an Eastertide of further spiritual disruption. At the very least, the dislocations we experience call us to a more profound realization of our dependence on the divine life given us in Baptism.
“Wittenberg” in Synodal Slow Motion
It is astonishing that, confronted by unmistakable empirical evidence that liberal Protestantism has collapsed around the world, German Catholic leaders, ordained and lay, seem determined to create a nominally Catholic form of liberal Protestantism through a slow-motion “Wittenberg.”
Beyond Amazonia
The reform of the priesthood, including a deepening of the Church’s commitment to the value of celibacy as a radical witness to the Kingdom, begins, as does all authentic Catholic reform, with deeper conversion to Jesus Christ and the gospel.
The Bullies and That Book
The partisans of openness and dialogue are now telling two of Catholicism’s most distinguished sons that their views are unwelcome; that the theological and pastoral defense of clerical celibacy is an act of disloyalty to Pope Francis; and that they should just shut up.
Sex, Celibacy, and the Latest Curiosity From Rome
Matters sacramental and supernatural cannot be reduced to the pragmatic, the functional, and the utility-driven. But critics of priestly celibacy—however good their intentions—inevitably do exactly that, to the detriment of the believing community they seek to serve.