It was not the head of the Catholic Church who finally condemned the tyrannical decrees of various state governors that churches are to be “nonessential,” while marijuana dispensaries, liquor stores, and abortuaries can remain open. It was President Donald Trump. He said that he is “correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential.” In … Read more
Almost twenty years ago, as a zealous evangelical Young Life leader at the University of Virginia, I sat on the trunk of my car with a high school senior at Charlottesville High School. He, an intelligent secular Jew, had taken my Gospel-sharing bait, and was willing to converse on God and Christianity. There we sat, … Read more
There is no question that the death of George Floyd is highly questionable. The shocking and shameful insurgencies erupting in cities across the country propose that the answer is rooted in an engrained American racism. That response, too, is highly questionable. In a sense, the reaction is as disturbing as the incident itself. As fire … Read more
Pope Leo XIII, born 210 years ago this year, is perhaps best known for his Marianism. He was one of the Church’s greatest promoters of the Holy Rosary, and was the first pontiff to embrace the title of Mediatrix for Our Lady. Yet Leo was one of the great thinkers of the modern age, having … Read more
On May 7, Bishop Joseph Zhu Baoyu of Nanyang died peacefully in his sleep. The 98-year-old prelate is known throughout the world as the oldest person to contract the novel coronavirus and make a full recovery. It was an uplifting tale that brought comfort and hope to millions of Catholics struggling against despair in the … Read more
Call the generation of which I am an exceedingly junior member either “the Baby Boomers” or the “Generation of ’68” and you evoke two similar but distinct images. The first makes one think of self-indulgent hippies-turned-self-indulgent old people; the second, revolutionaries-become-establishment. While neither is completely accurate, neither is entirely false. Like it or not, the … Read more
“Active shooter at Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi.” That was the breaking news story on Thursday morning. It turned out that the shooter was no longer active, having been “neutralized” after wounding a member of the base security force. As it happens, I was in the middle of writing a piece—the article you are … Read more
In 1752, a fifteen-year-old Edward Gibbon entered the halls of Magdalen College, Oxford, where his father had enrolled him as a gentleman commoner. The aspect of his new academic mother did not inspire the young scholar with immediate reverence, nor would the passage of many years cause him to look back on his brief term … Read more
An interview with the Reverend Canon Matthew Talarico, Director of Vocations and Provincial Superior of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. Q: What led you to choose your priestly vocation in the Institute and your personal devotion to the Traditional Latin Mass? I came to know the Traditional Latin Mass when I was … Read more
It’s been a strange and difficult semester for Catholic schools and colleges. Our institutions offer a unique social, spiritual, and intellectual formation that depends on personal presence, but students have been exiled from our classrooms, chapels, and athletic fields. For Catholic educators who have struggled to build on the strong relationships formed in the first … Read more
The pandemic has suddenly thrown our affluent and seemingly secure and safe lives into a tailspin. In fact, the security and certainty was always an illusion, and in East Coker T.S. Eliot ponders life’s shifting uncertainty: And every moment is a new and shocking Valuation of all we have been. We are only undeceived Of … Read more
Did Jesus legitimize the concept of a secular state? Many people, including well-intentioned Christians in today’s polite society, seem to think so. The “proof-text” they point to is Christ’s famous retort in St. Matthew’s Gospel, “render unto to Caesar that which is Caesar’s, but render unto God that which is God’s.” Yet a closer examination, … Read more
Here’s a rule of thumb: if The New York Times is praising you, you’re doing something wrong. On March 8, the Times ran an article by Tara Isabella Burton called “Christianity Gets Weird.” It’s about an Extremely Online phenomenon called—yes—“Weird Christianity.” According to Ms. Burton, what Weird Christians (like herself) “have in common is that … Read more
A couple of years ago, a particularly bright and perceptive student of mine commented that Catholic parishes were like single-parent homes. She elaborated on the point, arguing that something is missing at the parish level when there is no nun or Sister present. This resonated with me because in the domestic church we encourage each … Read more
One of the timeless traditions that occurs at the United States Naval Academy during plebe summer, before one is welcomed into the Brigade of Midshipmen, is for midshipman candidates to spend an afternoon at the Naval Academy cemetery where distinguished alumni and fallen warriors are laid to rest. The tombstones of Vice Admiral James Stockdale, … Read more
It stands overlooking the Thames, across an exceptionally glorious view of a beautiful part of England. White and austere, it has the solemn feeling of a temple, and you instinctively—and correctly—lower your voice as you draw near. This is Runnymede. The name echoes at once in the mind of anyone with a care for English history—for … Read more
It’s beginning to look as though the pandemic that has hit the world like a global tsunami might be finally waning. In its wake, we find ourselves picking up the pieces of broken religious practices following an unprecedented time in history in which the faithful were deprived of the sacraments through the orders of their … Read more
According to one sage observation: he who gets to name names, wins. Why do we talk about the Protestant Reformation and not the Protestant Revolution, for example? After all, Martin Luther commenced his journey as a reformer, repulsed righteously, as most of us would be, by the corruption and decadence of the Rome of his … Read more
This month the Little Sisters of the Poor returned to the U.S. Supreme Court, once again defending their right to practice the Catholic Faith by refusing to provide for contraceptives in their health insurance plan. This is a stark reminder that even years later the Obama administration’s assault on religious freedom continues to impact religious … Read more
The New York Times recently ran a piece titled “Women’s Unpaid Labor is Worth $10,900,000,000,000.” It was exactly as cynical and one-sided as one might expect. Though the piece masqueraded as a simple survey of women’s often-unseen contributions to society (in honor of International Women’s Day), the piece slipped into the quasi-Marxist commercialist drivel that … Read more