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Joyful penance, the spirit of Vatican I, and the old ball game

The Friday Pillar Post

Ed. Condon
Feb 24, 2023
∙ Paid
Joyful penance, the spirit of Vatican I, and the old ball game

Happy first Friday of Lent friends,

And enjoy your day of penance. I mean that.

Penance is one of those things which, at least in the West, has become an almost uniquely Catholic concept. The idea of a day of penance, let alone marking a whole season of it, strikes our wider society as maudlin, weird, and full of “Catholic guilt.”

And while it is neither m…

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