The progressive cultural elite has long perpetuated prejudices against the family that, unchallenged, lead to its ruin. Among several I cite three: (1) the assertion that marriage makes men and women less free; (2) the assumption that children are a burden; and (3) the insistence that sexual differentiation is a fiction. These three ideas represent, … Read more
My office holds many treasured keepsakes—a wedding photo, my children’s baptismal candles, and a fiftieth anniversary picture of my parents. In sight of where I write is also a picture of a young man and an old man, a joyful 26-year-old wearing doctoral robes for the first time and a man of about 70 clad … Read more
Every parent has experienced a child caught in the act, perhaps even with evidence of melted chocolate still on the corner of her lip, who resolutely denied the obvious. “What? Who me? Couldn’t be!” A good many parents have also encountered the icy indifference of a bolder child, one who does not care if he’s … Read more
A most remarkable scene unfolds in Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s great drama, Faust, in which Dr. Faustus labors to translate the opening sentence of St. John’s Gospel. It is important to note that at this juncture of the play the translator’s mind is in a state of confusion. Faust has rejected the true meaning of the … Read more
While it is true that nobody is in this life utterly beyond the reach of the Hound of Heaven, the Epistle to the Hebrews warns about the danger to those who have been fully incorporated into Christ and then reject him. “It is impossible,” the inspired writer tells us, mincing no words in the fashion … Read more
A great many things might have changed the results in November. Hurricane Sandy might have headed into the Atlantic instead of the Atlantic states. Or moods might have shifted, so that memes like “the war against women” might have flopped rather than flown. Still, there’s no explaining away what happened, and the re-election of Barack … Read more
To find a recent exemplar of Catholic intellectual life, one ought to look to the personalist philosopher and cultural critic Dietrich von Hildebrand (12 October 1889 – 26 January 1977). Few have exercised this calling more courageously, faithfully, or with greater integrity. Hildebrand’s intellectual pursuits were anchored in the solid rock of a devout life. … Read more
Forty years ago this month, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down every law in the land protecting the right of any child simply to be born. All at once, amid the sound and fury of imploding statutes, the most dangerous place in America became a mother’s womb. Since Roe v. Wade authorized … Read more
In 2010, I was honored to be among the official press commentators for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain. It was indeed a joy and a privilege to follow the Pope as he visited venues in London that resonated with Catholic significance. He visited Westminster Hall, in which St. Thomas More had stood trial, and … Read more
Pope Leo XIII affirms that a well governed State will promote the material and moral prosperity of its citizens, will honor private property and free association, and will protect the poor from abuse or depredation by the rich. How to do these things? Leo lays down four principles. The first is what I’ll call the … Read more
I see that Mr Cameron has tweeted that he is “delighted that principle of wearing religious symbols at work has been upheld.” The genial Eric Pickles said that he too is delighted. They were referring, of course, to the judgment in which, by a majority of five to two, judges of the European Court of … Read more
This year marks an auspicious anniversary—forty years of nation-wide abortion on demand since Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. These cases declared a right to abortion that was more permissive than the law of any state. A woman could take the life of her unborn child for virtually any reason at any time. The … Read more
If for nothing else, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will always be remembered at a tragedy. “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Emanuel told the Wall Street Journal in 2008, “what I mean by that is: an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” Who better to follow the … Read more
In the final chapter of the novel, “Harvesttime,” the March family gathers on an October day to celebrate a New England apple picking festival and reap the abundant fruit waiting to be picked. They have also come to celebrate Mrs.March’s sixtieth birthday and the fruits of her married love. Her husband, three happily married daughters, … Read more
Homosexual groups are celebrating in Europe this week as once more they have triumphed in a court of law over believing Christians. The European Court of Human Rights upheld decisions of British courts that had decided homosexual rights trump the rights of Christians whose faith teaches them homosexuality is wrong. To be sure, the results … Read more
One of the recommendations of Vatican II was that priests be formed in the arts: “During their philosophical and theological studies, clerics are to be taught about the history and development of sacred art, and about the sound principles governing the production of its works. In consequence they will be able to appreciate and preserve … Read more
Connecting with people you’d like to have known is a nice hobby, and I can claim to be just three handshakes from Abraham Lincoln and, remarkably, only five documented handshakes from George Washington, which is rare since as president he preferred to bow. Recently at the opera during an intermission of “Turandot,” I put several … Read more
It was, not so very long ago, widely regarded in this country as morally wrong and, not infrequently, socially ruinous, for a man to walk out on his wife and children. In 1961, for example, Nelson Rockefeller, who was then Governor of New York, decided to divorce his wife of more than twenty years, for … Read more
Of all the various modes in which Christian life is manifested, the life of the solitary ascetic strikes our contemporary culture as the most eccentric. In a culture that underscores self-fulfillment and the gratification of virtually every appetite, it is incomprehensible to most people why anyone would choose a life involving isolation from social life … Read more
In my latest essays I’ve noted that there cannot be a “social teaching” unless we know what a society is. Pope Leo XIII, in his many social encyclicals, expresses the constant wisdom of the Church when he affirms the reality of society—neither a numerical aggregate nor a collective—and when he sees this reality as rooted … Read more