Paul Joseph

A resource for lay ministers and clergy (and any Catholic who cares about safe and healthy religious spaces) about how to recognize and respond to spiritual abuse and the abuse of conscience. catholicthirdspace.com/p/the-place-wh…

Drawing from the teachings of Pope Leo, Pope Francis, and the Church's social doctrine, I unpack the radical teaching that every single human person has infinite dignity catholicthirdspace.com/p/35-infinite-…

@Frankenhouse5 Yes: catholicthirdspace.com/p/words-matter

@pjfahey Could you please elaborate on why it matters?

In his recent “Address to To Members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors”, Pope Leo used the phrase “persons in vulnerable situations” rather than “vulnerable adults.” This is no small development.

The Pastoral Message aod.org/rebuildingtrust 7/7

What would change if the Church lived out a preferential option for everyone who has been abused in the Church? That’s our mandate. 6/7

In a recent Pastoral Message on abuse, Archbishop Weisenburger addressed “those who have been abused or harmed in any way by bishops, priests, and deacons,” saying: 1/7

If every human being has infinite dignity, that must also include those who have acted in the worst, most inhumane, ways youtube.com/watch?v=ozo8fC…

“Contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history.” Pope Leo, Dilexi Te

A new round of spiritual abuse workshops is starting this spring catholicthirdspace.com/p/spiritual-ab…

I talked with Anne Carpenter about an essay she has in Commonweal about why the Catholic Right turned against Balthasar. In it she names perhaps the root sickness in Right-Wing Catholic spaces, as well as in the institutional Church. catholicthirdspace.com/p/34-anne-carp…

If someone wanted to jump into Dorothy Day’s writings, where’s the best place to begin?

@FrHarrison This is, hands down, the worst opinion you've ever expressed.

it was cancelled so quickly for a reason. it’s not that good.

“He wanted to sink so low that in the future all falling would be a falling into him” Hans urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World

For a much greater explanation, see this presentation I gave for Fr. Boniface Hick's spiritual director formation program about abuse of conscience: youtube.com/watch?v=HjuL6l…

Abuse of conscience is so normalized within American Catholicism that it's assumed to be the orthodox way of practicing the faith, and opposition to this abuse is perceived to be unfaithfulness to the Church.