Confirmation Confusion
The Archdiocese of Baltimore recently announced that children there can now be confirmed at age nine. The change ostensibly is intended to deepen their faith and better engage their parents in their religious formation.
The Pope, the Poor, “Pageantry and Prominence”
When the pope warns against “pageantry and prominence,” I want to know how he will also protect against tacky and tawdry because the latter has often been the practical upshot of post-Vatican II liturgical choices.
Keep Ringin’ Those Bells!
Are ringing bells during Mass a vestige of the bad old pre-1969 Mass, where everything was hidden from the People of God in a dead language and the priest had to get the congregation’s attention?
Robbing Abraham to Pay Bartholomew
The professional ecumenical class claims a common Easter would promote “Christian witness, unity, and evangelization.” The claim leaves me unconvinced because it does not address calendar differences.
Europe’s Wars of Anti-Religion
Recent attacks on religion in Europe show that the land that nursed Christianity to maturity is in desperate need of re-evangelization.
“Celebrating” Death?
The Secular Left continues to co-opt traditional ceremonies. First it was same-sex “weddings.” Now it’s “funerals” for those about to commit suicide.
Would St. Ambrose Get Fired Today?
What would Pope Francis have done with an Ambrose standing in the emperor’s path?
What’s Behind the Post-Election Liberal Meltdown?
Normal political dissent does not take the form of people bellowing like gored oxen on TikTok before an anonymous world as they shave their heads.
Toying with the Holydays
The latest installment of episcopal follies just exploded over this year’s status of Immaculate Conception. Is it a Holy Day of Obligation or not? It depends.
Whitmer Disrespects the Eucharist, Insults Catholics
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s recent TikTok video is either a desecration of the ritual of Communion, or she is completely unfamiliar with that central act of the Catholic and Orthodox faith. I don’t think it’s the latter.
The Ever-Present But Anti-Transcendent Screen
Our screen-based culture is flat and temporal, very immanent, very now, in some sense very ephemeral. None of those characteristics is conducive to openness to transcendence.
How Do We Know Which Locker Room Is “Appropriate?”
The ambiguity wreaked by gender confusion makes any interpretation of what is “appropriate” open to debate.
On Reading Literature: Thoughts for Pope Francis
Pope Francis recently wrote a letter on the role of literature in priestly formation, but a former associate dean of a Catholic seminary thinks it should have gone deeper.
We Need to Bring Back Forty Hours
To fulfill the promise of the National Eucharistic Congress, dioceses and parishes need to bring back the Forty Hours Devotion.
The Specter of “Christian Nationalism”
The ill-defined specter of Christian Nationalism is really just another attempt by the Left to silence people like you and me.
Permanent Characters
How many Catholics take their sacramental characters anywhere near as seriously as the characters they tattoo on their bodies?
Americans Need to Appeal to Heaven
“An appeal to heaven” seems exactly what the American founding notion of law was, a notion that protects Americans against the abuse of their rights in the name of “law.”
Sanctifying Time
Recovering the Church’s tradition of regular and recurring religious practices throughout the day and in the course of the week, month, and year is not just folklore. It responds to a basic human need.
No First Confessions as the Solution to Clergy Sexual Abuse?
Invoking the sex abuse scandal as a reason to keep children from Confession is an argument that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Love and Dignity
I admit a certain ambivalence about organizing a document around “human dignity” because I am unsure we’ve adequately prepared the ground to support that discussion, especially with non-Catholic circles.