The reason the Church names anger as one of the seven “deadly” sins is because it’s simultaneously so poisonous, so delicious, and so addictive.  Anger congeals quite comfortably into hatred. 

La razón por la que la Iglesia nombra la ira como uno de los siete pecados «mortales» es porque al mismo tiempo es tan venenosa, tan deliciosa y tan adictiva. La ira se convierte muy cómodamente en odio.

Racism is a poison of the soul. It’s the ugly, original sin of our country, an illness that has never fully healed. Blending it with the Nazi salute, the relic of a regime that murdered millions, compounds the obscenity. Thus the wave of public anger about white nationalist events in Charlottesville this weekend is well warranted. We especially need to pray for those injured in the violence.

El racismo es un veneno del alma. Es feo, el pecado original de nuestro país, una enfermedad que nunca se ha curado. Mezclado con el saludo nazi, la reliquia de un régimen que asesinó a millones, agrava la obscenidad. Por lo tanto la ola de enojo público sobre los eventos nacionalistas blancos en Charlottesville este […]

Archbishop Chaput’s Weekly Column: “A Moment for Women in the New Evangelization”
When an event sells out five weeks in advance with 300 people on a waiting list, it’s safe to conclude a few things. First, the event matters. Second, it’s meeting a serious need. Third, the topic greatly interests its intended audience.

Cuando un evento se vende cinco semanas antes con 300 personas en lista de espera, es seguro concluir algunas cosas. En primer lugar, el evento importa; en segundo lugar, está satisfaciendo una necesidad seria; en tercer lugar, el tema interesa mucho a la audiencia a la que está dirigido.

I want to begin this final talk with a simple fact: The Catholic Church is a bone in the throat of our secular culture. We’ve all felt its subtle — and often not so subtle – contempt for Catholic moral teaching, especially when it comes to sex. But that’s not the half of it. The deeper scandal of the Church is her set-apartness.

Yesterday I offered an overview of today’s pastoral terrain.  And I shared some thoughts on our mission as priests over the next twenty or so years.  But this isn’t the first time the Church has faced radical changes to culture and intense challenges to evangelization.  Through the centuries the Church has responded in a variety of ways.  But for our purposes today I want to focus on one essential thing: priestly fraternity. 

Thank you, Archbishop Chaput, for your warm and gracious welcome. I’m pleased to be with all of you men as a brother in these days together.  I need to say to you that I think you have the most outstanding Archbishop. We met at the second Synod on the Family in 2015. I was staying at the North American College because it is quite convenient for the Synod Hall at the Vatican. The American bishop-delegates to the Synod were staying there too and they were all very hospitable and welcoming to me. 

History is full of great quotations that people never said.  One of the best lines comes from Vladimir Lenin.  He described Russian progressives, social democrats, and other fellow travelers as “useful idiots” – naïve allies in revolution whom the Bolsheviks promptly crushed when they took power.  Or so the legend goes.