A System Is What It Does: On Cardinal McElroy’s Appointment
The Church, at least in its administrative aspect, is a patronage system, and the purpose of ecclesiastical appointments is to create powerful patrons who protect and promote clients.
Reports of Liberalism’s Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated
Trump’s election is a reaffirmation of the basically liberal character of United States; it was moderate liberals forced right by the far left wing of the Democratic Party that carried him to his win.
The Unserious “House of Luce”
I expect heresy and moral scandal to blight the Church from time to time. What distresses me more is the utter lack of seriousness, the lack of appreciation for the awesome responsibility which Church leaders bear.
Love for St. Peter and His Successor
My love for Peter endures because he is like me, fragile flesh and blood, but also unlike me, in that he became holy, despite his sin. I must love the successor of Peter, even when that successor causes me to suffer.
Why the Attempt to Ban the Latin Mass Is Failing
The inability to shut down the traditional Latin Mass reflects the different between power and authority in the papacy.
Trump Owes Pro-Lifers Nothing—and That’s a Good Thing
Devout Catholics and their Protestant allies need to recognize that they no longer represent “the people,” and approach politics more transactionally.
When the Vatican Gets It Wrong
One reason Catholics often treat any criticism of the Vatican as verboten arises from an awareness of how much the Church’s authority depends in practice upon public opinion, in a way it did not previously.
“They Died for Nothing”: America and the Myth of World War II
Our public memory of the Second World War we have inherited in the United States is a myth designed to propagate a political ideology.
The Once and Future Christendom
Thinking clearly and asking ourselves hard questions about the future is the first step toward finding alternative ways of living the Faith that will outlast the current crisis the Church finds herself in.
Pope Francis and the Conspiracy Against the Church
Which conspiracy theories can we trust when it comes to the Church? Which ones are plausible and which ones are not?
God and Man’s Best Friend
I don’t think it is wrong to mourn for a beloved pet, as long as our affection for them helps us to live more simply and grow in love for God and neighbor.
Dostoevsky for Catholics (and Everyone Else), Part II
Dostoevsky wished to show how a Christian could overcome the powerful grip of modern ideas that denied the existence of God and spiritual realities more generally.
Dostoevsky for Catholics (and Everyone Else), Part I
Dostoevsky represents one powerful reply to many of the cataclysmic changes that have swept modern Western civilization since the eighteenth century.
The Pope, the Bishops, and the Church’s Crisis of Trust
Trust in institutions is at an all-time low, and this includes the Catholic Church, whose leaders have done little to generate trust.
America Must Stay Out of Other Nations’ Ethnic Conflicts
The same pitfalls of well-meaning Americans going on the internet and crying for the United States to involve itself in ethnic conflicts applies just as well in the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as in the case of Ukraine.
The Not So Strange Death of Religious Liberty
A number of long-term trends, including the collapse of mainline Protestantism, has led to the death of religious liberty, killed by the very groups who long defended it.
Robert E. Lee and the Nine Worthies
Is it a good thing for a Catholic publication to promote the life of Robert E. Lee as an example to be imitated?
The Last Temptation of the Lay Apologist
Lay apologists today, because of the media environment and other circumstances in society, face temptations that their predecessors did not; primary among them is the clickbait temptation.