Author: Lily Marie
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Confessions on Confession
Introduction I was 24 the last time I went to confession. Kneeling across from a priest I had known since I was nine, I openly admitted that I struggled with insecurity about my body. Before launching into pastoral reassurance and a reminder of my dignity, he probed with a question: “Which part of your body?…
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Rethinking Pomp and Circumstance in the Catholic Church
When Jesus of Nazareth told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world,” He wasn’t being poetic. He was naming a rupture, a severing between the power structures of empire and the new order He embodied: one marked by humility, vulnerability, and open arms rather than lush robes. And yet, in the centuries that followed,…
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Filming in Sacred Spaces: A Measured Critique of Oversight and Exploitation
Introduction On October 27, 2023, Sabrina Carpenter released the music video for Feather, which included choreographed scenes filmed inside Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Brooklyn, New York. The video featured Carpenter dancing around the altar in a short black dress and posing before a crucifix inscribed with profanities. Following public backlash, the Diocese…
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Faith or Obedience? The Passive Catholic and the Crisis of Discernment
Why do so many educated, faithful Catholics defer their discernment to clergy? A reflection on systemic passivity in the Church and the call to active faith. A Faithful Friend and a Strange Image Catholicism is often accused of being rigid or overly hierarchical, but perhaps one of its deeper, more insidious issues is not rigidity,…
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Corpus Christi: Where is the Body of Christ?
Introduction Corpus Christi, the solemn feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, is celebrated with majesty: a golden monstrance carried under a regal canopy, incense rising in thick plumes, and the faithful kneeling in adoration. It is a day to honour the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. But it should be a…
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Joseph of Arimathea: The Silent Disciple Who Spoke Loudest Through Action
Introduction Among the many figures who appear briefly in the Gospels yet leave an outsized legacy, Joseph of Arimathea stands apart. He is not a preacher, not a martyr, and not a miracle-worker. He speaks no recorded words. And yet, his silent courage in the final hours of Jesus’ earthly life leaves a lasting imprint…
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Eucharistic Miracles: Faith and the Search for Signs
Introduction Eucharistic miracles are often cited as divine endorsements of Catholic teaching: bleeding hosts, cardiac tissue woven into bread, scientific findings that seem to defy natural explanation. Many Catholics regard these events as powerful affirmations of the Real Presence. But a deeper question lurks behind the awe: if we truly believe that every Eucharist is…
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The Marian Dogmas
The Catholic Church upholds four Marian dogmas: These teachings are not presented as devotional preferences or theological opinions; they are declared binding truths, revealed by God and proclaimed by the Magisterium as necessary for belief. This reflection does not dispute that Mary holds a special place in salvation history. She is, after all, the woman…
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This Is Not What You Think
What This Is The Catholic Doctrine is not a devotional pamphlet. It is not an apologetics ministry. It is not curated by a committee. This is a project of fierce love and brutal honesty, a work by a Catholic who believes that Christ is eternally true, but the Church is not always honest. Who believes…
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What is Ecumenical Theology?
Ecumenical theology explores one of Christianity’s most difficult but urgent questions: whether centuries of division among churches can give way to some form of shared life, shared faith, or shared mission. It begins not with an idealised vision of unity, but with the reality of fracture. Historically, Christian unity has not been a given. The…