Remembering Forward

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Linda Wolf

Friar Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conv. noted that English theologian and philosopher Saint John Henry Newman chose the Feast of the Presentation to preach his 15th, and ultimate, Oxford University Sermon. It’s not uncommon for philosophers to choose meaningful dates to celebrate milestones.

Remembering Forward cover So too, on the occasion of his Golden Jubilee, Fr. Ondrako has published Remembering Forward: Critical Engagement with Modernity, his collection of 24 sermons that he preached during his Jubilee year.

Each reflection, any of which can stand on its own, is based on the perspective of Cyril O’Regan’s “Gift of Modernity” that theologically compares and contrasts what he describes as the three positions of theologians: cheerers, weepers, and shadow-seers.

Ten chapters include a reproduction of a fresco, one of a series painted by the thirteenth century Cenni di Pepo (Cimabue), an Italian mural painter and designer of mosaics. These frescoes exist today in the Upper Church of San Francisco in Assisi.

Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, a Franciscan Conventual priest of Our Lady of the Angels Province, is Research Fellow on the Pontifical Faculty of St. Bonaventure, Rome and a Visiting Scholar, at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and, Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.), each in Humanities/Humanistic Studies, Master of Arts (M.A.), Theology/Theological Studies, Master of Social Work (M.S.W.), and a Master of Theology.

Fr. Ondrako is also the author of Rebuild My Church: Peter Damian Fehlner’s Appropriation and Development of the Ecclesiology and Mariology of Vatican II (Lectio Publishing, 2021). Remembering Forward is published as a full-color electronic book, available on either (Apple) iTunes or (Amazon) Kindle. See details »

David Carlin’s Three Sexual Revolutions

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Eric Wolf

Lectio is proud to publish the latest work of noted columnist and commentator David R. Carlin. Having received graduate degrees from the University of Notre Dame (philosophy) and the University of Rhode Island (sociology), David taught philosophy and/or sociology at the college level for more than fifty years before his recent retirement.

Three Sexual Revolutions Catholic, Protestant, Atheist Three Sexual Revolutions: Catholic, Protestant, Atheist is a discussion from both a sociological and historical perspective. While there have been numerous sexual revolutions throughout history, Carlin focuses on the three major revolutions that have molded today’s American culture.

Carlin is well-versed in the unfolding of America’s current predicament of sexual permissiveness to the breakdown of the ubiquity of marriage and even the questioning of one’s sexual identity. He traces our societal crisis from earliest days of Christianity when the Catholic faith supplanted the then-current mores of sexual permissiveness with a message of Christ-modeled chastity, in and outside marriage. He then unravels the effects of the Protestant Reformation on the sexual mores of the latter Middle Ages. Read the full description and order your copy, see our book page »

The Controverted Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia

Posted on June 3, 2022 by Eric Wolf

In the wake of Pope Francis’s promotion of Bishop McElroy, Professor Eduardo Echeverria, author of Pope Francis: The Legacy of Vatican II, has asked us to make available to you the essay comprising the fourth chapter in the revised edition of his book. He comments:

I agree with theologian Larry Chapp on the significance of Amoris Laetitia for understanding why Bishop McElroy was promoted to the red hat. The bishop has been an “unabashed supporter of Amoris Laetitia.” This promotion is the “pope’s way of signaling that McElroy’s approach to the moral theological principles of Amoris is correct.”

This essay from the revised and expanded, second edition of my book, Pope Francis: The Legacy of Vatican II critically discusses the moral theological principles of chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’s 2016 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation. I show that the troublesome arguments of his chapter 8 are both pastoral and moral theological. I also show that despite Pope Francis’ claims to the contrary, his moral theology is neither Thomistic nor does it reflect a “hermeneutic of the Church,” as Francis puts it, “always in continuity (without ruptures), yet always maturing.” My analysis of Amoris Laetitia will help the reader to understand what is wrong with the pope’s moral reasoning.

Read Professor Echeverria’s essay »