A common argument against same-sex marriage is that it is ‘unnatural.’ But without qualification, such an argument is pointless. What do people mean when they call something ‘unnatural’? Do they mean ‘unusual,’ ‘abnormal,’ or ‘ugh’! I don’t like it!’? Do they mean ‘it doesn’t happen in the animal kingdom!’ or ‘it can’t happen without human … Read more
This article originally appeared on Ethika Politika One of the demands made by the Occupy Wall Street movement has been the ending of the legal fiction of personhood for business corporations. This desire on the part of the Occupy movement is healthy, but the issue is actually more complicated than might at first appear. For corporate … Read more
We live in a materialistic world where stress has become one of the greatest of illnesses. There is the constant pressure to consume more, to work harder, to live longer, to look better, to be selfish and greedy, to accept and succumb to promiscuous and immoral laws that encourage pornography, abortion, homosexuality and genetic manipulation. … Read more
After the April announcement that the Vatican was taking the Leadership Conference of Women Religious into a form of ecclesiastical receivership, appointing Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain to oversee the LCWR until its statutes and program are reformed, Tom Fox, a major figure at the National Catholic Reporter for decades, had this to say: “Some … Read more
Among the most momentous events of twentieth-century history is the defeat of the Communist Red Army in the Battle of Warsaw in the summer of 1920, “the miracle on the Vistula,” the subject of Adam Zamoyski’s excellent recent book Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe. In the aftermath of the catastrophic First World War, … Read more
In the mid-’90s, the abortion industry in the United States realized it was facing an existential threat — the population of abortionists was aging and nobody was stepping up to take their place. Although plenty would pay lip service to a right to “choose,” when it came to the grisly work involved in “terminations,” few … Read more
What interesting timing. I had recently planned a column on my observations about Mitt Romney at Cranbrook. Why? Not because of anything in the news related to Cranbrook—at least not yet—but because our careers there (mine and Mitt’s) overlapped. Then The Washington Post released its story about the young, alleged bully, Mitt Romney. Now my … Read more
On a June evening in 1979 I was having a drink on a small balcony outside a sixth-floor apartment in downtown Warsaw with a very civilized, elderly Polish intellectual, a retired mathematics professor who had taken a degree at Cambridge between the two world wars and spoke a refined, witty, patrician English. Inside the apartment … Read more
The term “Red Letter Day” probably goes back to 325 AD when the First Council of Nicaea decreed that great feasts be marked in red on the calendar. Pentecost is quite literally a Red Letter Day since its liturgical color is red to match the holy fire that came down on the apostles fifty days … Read more
Like many Americans, Memorial Day never ceases to move me. Rivaled only by Christmas and Easter, it’s the most poignant time of the year for me, maybe because, like Christmas and Easter, it’s about life, death, and remembrance. This Memorial Day, several images stick with me: Recently, I was sitting at the waiting room at … Read more
On June 1st, 1961, the feast of Corpus Christi, the Cardinal Primate of Poland, Stefan Wyszyński stood at St. Anne’s Church in Warsaw, his archiepiscopal see. The baroque and neoclassical-style church was still not fully rebuilt from Hitler’s systematic destruction visited on Warsaw for having dared to rise against his rule. Outside the church, well … Read more
It’s now more than 50 years since the revolution began. Sexual “liberation” has been endlessly ballyhooed by the national media, promoted in the movies, embraced by Playboy guys and Cosmo girls as a freedom more delicious than Eden’s apple. No American under 40 can honestly remember a time when sex on TV was taboo, when … Read more
If a thing is worth doing at all, it’s worth doing badly. This paradoxical witticism of Chesterton was on my mind as I sat down to watch The War of the Vendée, a new film about the forgotten martyrs of the French Revolution. I was pleased that a film had been made to honour the … Read more
Recently I’ve found myself having to defend to parishioners and friends the fact that I could not stand the movie Courageous. There seems to be almost an expectation that, as a Catholic priest, I should love explicitly Christian films. While I certainly think that the message of fatherly responsibility was good, and I would support, … Read more
New political leaders do not invent new national strategies. Rather, they adapt enduring national strategies to the moment. On Tuesday, Francois Hollande was inaugurated as France’s president, and soon after taking the oath of office, he visited German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. At this moment, the talks are expected to be about austerity and … Read more
I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; lo, I have not restrained my lips, as thou knowest, O LORD. (Psalms 40:9) Let the children come to me; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (Mark 10:14) Some years back I joined a committee formed to save our … Read more
This article orignally appeared at Library of Law and Liberty Constitutionalism is in crisis—obviously in Europe, more arguably in America. High on the list of intellectual breakthroughs that might help us sort through our contemporary confusions is George Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel’s Philosophy of Right—to my mind, the best book ever written on the subject. Argh! … Read more
St. Philip Neri was beatified in 1615, five years after St. Charles Borromeo was raised to the altars, and canonized in 1622 in company with St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Teresa of Avila. This group could be said to represent in a unique way the extraordinary vitality of the Catholic Reformation of … Read more
Economists and pundits alike are going wild over the United Kingdom’s recent “double dip” recession. The 2008-09 recession prompted the election of a conservative coalition led by Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron decided the best path for economic recovery was “austerity,” a program of reduced government spending and smaller government debt. The new coalition—with the … Read more
It can be disconcerting to watch the ranks of people walking along the city streets with wires in their ears, oblivious to the lives being lived around them, and tuning in only to what they choose to hear. It is surprising that more of them are not run over by taxis, but even if they … Read more