Hell and Pope Francis
Let’s hope the lesson regarding Mr. Scalfari has finally been learned so we don’t see further international headlines recounting this or that alleged contradiction by Pope Francis of some basic Christian tenet. April 2, 2018 Mark Brumley “Hell does not exist,” Pope Francis supposedly told atheist journalist Eugenio Scalfari, “what exists is the disappearance of […]
Amazonian Women Deacons?
October 19, 2019 Mark Brumley The Church’s modern teaching is not simply that women may not be or should not be ordained deacons; it’s that women cannot be ordained deacons. Pope Francis meets indigenous people from the Amazonian region during an encounter in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican Oct. 17, 2019. The meeting took place during the second week […]
A post-synodal exhortation: Let’s learn to speak more accurately
October 30, 2023 Mark Brumley A synod where a significant number of voting participants aren’t bishops isn’t a Synod of Bishops, really. It just isn’t. Delegates meet at round tables during the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 10, 2023. / Credit: Vatican MediaWith all due respect to various folks, including Cardinal Schoenborn, the Synod that […]
AI and Us: Computers, Lemonade, and God
A conversation with Ilyas Khan, the founder of the world’s largest and leading quantum computing company, about what AI is (and is not), why it has captured our imagination, and what AI means for humanity. February 25, 025 Mark Brumley (Image of AI chip: Igor Omilaev/Unsplash; of lemonade: Laura Chouette/Unsplash; of hand of God from Michelangelo’s […]
Imagine Liturgical Peace
It seems time to revisit Pope Benedict’s caution about the Church not contributing to divisions and to ask whether leadership in recent years has sometimes added to unhelpful antagonism. Mark Brumley – June 9, 2025 A sacramentary is seen on the altar during a traditional Tridentine Mass July 18, 2021, at St. Josaphat Church in the […]
Some Political Issues Should Be More Important Than Others for Catholics
Mark Brumley Are some issues in the upcoming election more important than others? Absolutely. I say that as a long-time advocate of what’s called a Consistent Life Ethic. My thinking has always been that the alternative to a Consistent Life Ethic is an Inconsistent Life Ethic, which doesn’t make sense. Prolife Catholics have really no […]
Why Only Catholicism Can Make Protestantism Work: Louis Bouyer on the Reformation
MARK BRUMLEY Louis Bouyer contends that the only way to safeguard the positive principles of the Reformation is through the Catholic Church. For only in the Catholic Church are the positive principles the Reformation affirmed found without the negative elements the Reformers mistakenly affixed to them. Interpreting the Reformation is complicated business. But like many […]
Apologetics Without Apology
MARK BRUMLEY Properly employed, apologetics is immensely helpful. It can’t “prove” the truth of Christianity or Catholicism, the way a mathematician can prove the Pythagorean theorem — that isn’t its purpose. But it can help people think about faith — non-Christians to consider Christ and the Christian Faith, non-Catholic Christians to examine the case for […]
Are Catholics Born Again?
MARK BRUMLEY “Have you been born again?” the Fundamentalist at the door asks the unsuspecting Catholic. The question is usually a segue into a vast doctrinal campaign that leads many ill-instructed Catholics out of the Catholic Church. How? By making them think there is a conflict between the Bible and the Catholic Church over being […]