Robert Royal
Cardinals in Conflict: The Future of the Latin Mass and Synodality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgIzmM8Q6mU A battle royale is underway inside the Vatican—and the stakes couldn’t be higher. On this edition of The Prayerful Posse, Raymond Arroyo, Fr. Gerald Murray, and Robert Royal break down new details from…
The Lives of Christian Moms
When I taught CCD, I used to tell my kids, ‘If everybody else is doing it, it’s probably wrong.’ The Christian life is difficult. The truth is difficult.” So said Kelley (as we may call her) when I interviewed her, in January 1999, a few…
How They Died: Martyrdom of the Apostles
In The Cost of Discipleship (1937), Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes that Christ invited St. Peter “to the supreme followship of martyrdom for the Lord he had denied. . .thereby forgiving him all his sins. In the life of Peter, grace and discipleship…
Comedies, Earthly and Divine – The Catholic Thing
A good friend and long-time prominent Catholic commentator called me this week to ask my perspective on current American foreign policy. Not for the first time, I had nothing coherent to offer. This has been the situation for some 15 years now.…
A Consistory to Revitalize the College of Cardinals
During a decade of service at the Vatican Secretariat of State, I was constantly perplexed by the Holy See’s unwillingness or inability to utilize already existing ecclesial structures for effective governance. As the Cardinals meet in Rome over…
For Cardinals in Consistory This Week: Mending Wall
Pope Leo has summoned the world’s Cardinals to a Consistory this week, a return to normal practice that was mostly sidelined for the past dozen years in favor of “synodal” gatherings. So now that the Jubilee Year has concluded, the current pope…
Of Light and Darkness – The Catholic Thing
Yesterday was the winter solstice, the point at which, because of variations in the way that the Earth orbits the Sun, night is longest, the “darkest day of the year.” (It’s also my birthday, and for some who have followed me over the years, I…
An ‘Aide-Memoire’ for Pope Leo
Offering advice to a pope is a presumptuous thing – for anyone. In the Church of synodality, however, where everyone is supposed to have a voice – and be listened to – perhaps not so presumptuous as once upon a time. Still, such counsel should…
Attacks on the Sacred and a Kinky Vatican Official?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ng5xHVMA4g On this episode of The Prayerful Posse, Raymond Arroyo is joined by Fr. Gerald Murray and Robert Royal to confront rising attacks on churches and Christmas displays in Europe and the Church’s muted…
Leo Amid the Heresies – The Catholic Thing
Pope Leo has been traveling in Turkey and Lebanon, doing what popes do on such occasions: Visiting religious and political leaders, signing agreements about further “dialogue,” calling for peace and respect for human dignity. All good things,…