Liturgy
Turning Point
In the fall of 1965, I worked in the final session of the Second Vatican Council. A young priest and doctoral candidate, I was tasked with distributing documents...
The Floating Sacrament
Not a Reset ButtonThomas L. KuhlmanI am a practicing psychologist and a practicing Catholic. Recently a Catholic client expressed serious concern about his...
The Aftermass
Read Peter Steinfels's dotCommonweal post--along with the comment thread in which Steinfels participates--here.Related: J. Peter Nixon comments on his experience...
Missal Defense
This year, thanks to the adoption of the new translation of the Roman Missal, the First Sunday of Advent is looming like a date with a root canal. As I mentioned in...
The War on Beige
The search for good resources for adult religious formation is not an easy one. There is the Catechism of the Catholic Church itself, of course, authoritative and...
It Doesn’t Sing
Beginning in Advent of this year, the language of the Mass will be very different. A new translation of the Roman Missal—the book of prayers used in the Mass—will...
Roman Missal Crisis
1963: Vatican II allowed the use of “the mother tongue” in the liturgy, entrusting bishops conferences with overseeing translations, which Rome would then approve....
Liturgy by Committee
The banished heart of Geoffrey Hull’s title is the traditional Roman liturgy; his subtitle refers to the present liturgical practice of the Catholic Church; and the...
Up against the Wall
I’m tired of being nice about it, tired of being politically correct when this issue comes up. So I’ll be blunt. Someone just left my parish to join one that has an...
Joys (& Fears) of Cooking
It was a Mass celebrating a major anniversary of the parish and I was right in the middle of the homily. It was also one of those exquisite moments when the message...
Growing Up Catholic
This article originally appeared in the February 26, 1965, issue of Commonweal.It is difficult to write about something in flux as if it were something fixed;...
No Labels, Please
Sometimes, when talking to younger audiences, the theologian Lisa Sowle Cahill will describe herself as a “relic” of the distant and benighted era before the Second...
