Peter the fisherman, a rural manual laborer who the Jews in Jerusalem would have looked on as a hick with that funny Galilean accent, is the first to make that great act of Faith to Jesus: “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God”. At the First Eucharist, he swears to our Lord that if all others should deny him he never would. Then comes t...

It’s amazing how many times I’ve heard from fellow Catholics that they think that God directly chooses the pope. Just yesterday someone said that they refused to criticize the pope because he was given to the Church by the Holy Spirit. The Church does not teach that position. According to the laws of the Church, the Cardinals choose the pope wh...

Karl is the German and original form of Charles and Carlos, which means “free man.” It is one of the great names of Christian history. It was the name of seven Holy Roman Emperors, ten kings of France, two kings of England, four kings of Spain, four kings of Hungary, one Austro-Hungarian Emperor, and the baptismal name of one pope. When I lived...

Since the time of the English Reformation to even this day, Catholics have been derided as “Papists” for their loyalty to the pronouncements of the Pope and the Church’s Magisterium—over and above, say, the pronouncements of other Christian confessions or the supreme law of the land (i.e., our constitution).  Even in our own country the te...