Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
We celebrate today one of the most joyful and idiosyncratic – the two are not unrelated – of saints, Philip Neri, (+1595), the founder of the Congregation of the Oratory named after him. Born and raised in the great city of Florence, which has produced a whole host of luminaries from Dante to da Vinci[…]
For today’s Sunday musical offering, here is the string quartet in C-minor by Friedrich Ernst Fesca (1789 – 1826), who deserves to be much, much better known. I only discovered him recently driving back from Mass with my Dad as I was visiting. As one commentator put it, It is a matter for investigation how[…]
‘You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father’ (Jn. 15:14-15). We are[…]
According to Saint Paul, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22) And there is this from St. Augustine, “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” Patience might be defined as the encountering of the small before the large.[…]
On the 24th of May 2024 the Church celebrates the feast of Mary, the Help of Christians. Its latin name is Sancta Maria Auxilium Christianorum. It was St John Chrysostom who made use of this title, way back to the year 345. Other historical connotations which are intimately connected with this feast can be found[…]
“Sorry. I’m blowing up your phone,” I wrote after sending a barrage of text messages regarding the election of Pope Leo XIV. “I’m blowing up several phones. Mine is blowing up, too.” It was. On Monday afternoon, May 8, 2025, I swiftly became engaged in conversations (text, email, and verbal) with friends and colleagues, academics[…]
“The Church needs to promote apologetics, which is aimed at affirming the truth of Christian revelation, the harmony of faith and reason, and a sound understanding of freedom.” Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict’s remark is immensely relevant to our time. The question might well be raised: since the intellectual assault on religion has been chronic[…]
Fittingly, in this month of Mary, we celebrate on this May 21st Saint Eugène de Mazenod (+1861), the 19th century founder of the Missionaries Oblate of Mary Immaculate. Born in 1782, Eugène had an idyllic childhood in France, at least for the first seven or so years, for his world, everyone else’s, was turned upside[…]
(To clarify, Catholic Insight is not a ‘political’ magazine, even if I have some hesitation in making too hermetically-sealed categories. There is a right, and a duty, to critique our political leaders, especially when their policies go contrary to right reason, the moral law and the Church’s revealed truth. Furthermore, we have our own category[…]
This May 20th marks the 1700th anniversary of the opening session of the Council of Nicaea, which this Year of Jubilee, 2025 commemorates. Nicaea is traditionally held to be the first ecumenical council of the Church (prescinding from the ‘council of Jerusalem’, from ca. 48 A.D. recounted in Acts 15). Nicaea was called by Emperor[…]
