Letter #15, 2025, Thursday, January 30: Top Ten 2024 #1 Person of the Year: Bishop Mounir Khairallah, 72, Maronite Catholic Bishop of Batroun, Lebanon I met Bishop Mounir Khairallah, 72, our choice for #1 Person of the Year 2024, in October in Rome. Though he was extremely busy -- as days in Rome may be [...]
Letter #13, 2025, Wednesday, January 29: Top Ten 2024 #2 We chose theologian Tracey Rowland to be one of our "Top Ten" people of 2024 because in her words we continue to hear the voice of Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger, whose thought she has studied in depth. —RM P.S. To subscribe to Inside the [...]
Letter #11, 2025, Tuesday, January 28: Top Ten 2024 #3 I met Eduardo Verastegui in Rome some years ago, and we passed some time together in and around St. Peter's Square, talking about the faith and about the history of the Church. As the years passed by, I have been impressed by Verastegui's integrity and [...]
Bishop Richard Williamson, 84, has reportedly suffered a severe stroke and has fallen into a coma; doctors have said he is in the last hours of his life. Here is a tweet by British journalist Edward Pentin on Williamson's condition, link. The bishop was excommunicated twice, and his views on the Holocaust led to him [...]
Pope Francis greets Bishop Athanasius Schneider on January 20, 2025 at the Vatican (photo: Mario Tomassetti / Vatican Media) Letter #6, 2025, Wednesday, January 22: Top Ten 2024 #5 For our #5 Person of the Year 2024, we chose Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan. (If you do not want to miss any [...]
Letter #5, 2025, Wednesday, January 22: Top Ten 2024, #6 Professional football player in the United States, Harrison Butker. Last summer, Butker was attacked when he gave a commencement address at an American college and spoke words of praise about his wife, and about the beauty she had found in being a mother. He responded: [...]
Monsignor Lucio Bonora. He passed away earlier today in Rome at the age of 73 Letter #4, 2025, Tuesday, January 21: Top Ten 2024 #7 A good and kind priest who lived in the Domus Santa Marta and worked in the Vatican for many years died early today in the Policlinico Gemelii Hospital in Rome. [...]
Letter #3, 2025, Friday, January 17: Top Ten 2024 #8 Two bits of news in recent days: (1) Pope Francis fell in his room in the Domus Santa Marta at 4:30 a.m. and hurt his arm slightly (he is now wearing a sling), and (2) a new autobiography by the Pope gives his views on [...]
Letter #2, 2025, Thursday, January 16: Top Ten 2024 #9 In this letter, we speak of Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, whom we feel offers a model for bishops in this difficult time. He is not arrogant or puffed-up, but he is a faithful steward of the Catholic faith in an age when the [...]
Letter #1, 2025, Monday, January 13: Gibson and Our Top Ten of 2024, #10 A few preliminary thoughts as the year 2025 begins. *** The Church we love faces a profound fracture. If we wish to preserve and defend the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic" Church, our work lies before us. And each day the [...]
