My wife was at the rally in Washington DC yesterday. She went in a small bus with a handful of conservative men and women, most of them well into their 60s. A friend of ours was there with her children. There were many children there. Participants were given specific instructions in advance about how to … Read more
[Editor’s Note: Published below is an interview with Archbishop Carlo Viganò conducted by Stephen K. Bannon, host of the popular podcast, “War Room: Pandemic.” Crisis is publishing this interview as a newsworthy perspective on current events. The opinions expressed therein do not necessarily imply endorsement by the Crisis Editorial Board. The full interview can also … Read more
Years ago, after another outrage in Beirut, I recall a comment by a Jihadist intellectual. He was disgusted with the then widespread belief that such atrocities only happen within Muslim countries, a sign of their civilizational inferiority. He longed for the day when such frequent bombings would also be an everyday event in Western cities. That … Read more
Grace builds upon nature, and perfects it. But what if the foundation of nature is missing? I look out of the window to the broad stretch of open yard behind our house. It is covered with the snow we got last week. If you stand in it, and look at it in the light of … Read more
We’ve been hearing it for weeks now: 2020 was a terrible year and we all can’t wait to shake its dust from our feet and move on to a better, brighter 2021. Between tense racial eruptions, the Covid stranglehold of fear and “socialist” distancing, and the flagrant fraudulence of our election system, 2020 was a … Read more
The lesson from Isaiah at Midnight Mass on Christmas reads, “Thou has increased their joy and given them great gladness.” I am often struck by the fact that in Christianity joy and gladness are not so much a product of our own activities but something much more, something that happens when all that the Greeks … Read more
Without presuming to speak for the human race, but claiming what authority membership bestows, let it be said that there is no time when people are more susceptible to otherworldly interactions than at Christmas time. Marking the greatest spiritual Advent in history, the aura and traditions of Christmas have been alive with spirits ever since … Read more
It is axiomatic that nothing well-written ever comes from a committee. So, I regard as miraculous the recent report, Catholic Hymnody at the Service of the Church, put forth by the doctrinal watchdogs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is incisive, intelligent, and precise, blessedly free of political correctness, and sensitive to … Read more
On the moral illicitness of the use of vaccines made from cells derived from aborted human fetuses In recent weeks, news agencies and various information sources have reported that, in response to the Covid-19 emergency, some countries have produced vaccines using cell lines from aborted human fetuses. In other countries, such vaccines are being planned. … Read more
In the film Full Metal Jacket, which is set during the Vietnam War, there is a scene where a platoon of American soldiers is pinned down by a sniper. Two soldiers have already been hit. They writhe in pain, and perhaps death throes, out in the open. The newly christened platoon leader, “Cowboy,” tells his … Read more
Suppose an anthropologist were asked, apart from the sound and fury of current politics, what were the signs of a dying culture, or a culture committing suicide? What might he respond, as following from human nature and from the terms of the question itself? What might he notice in our own? Such a culture would … Read more
Once again, Covid-19, or at least news of it, is on the rise—and, with it, media-hyped encouragements to hole up and hide away from our families and friends. And, hot out of the oven, we have the next new phenomenon spawned by the so-called pandemic: “virtual Thanksgiving.” That’s right, instead of traditional “in-person” gatherings of … Read more
I once overheard in a grocery store: “Darling, not everything you want is good for you.” There it was: in one simple phrase, the wisdom of a mother who knows that she should not buy whatever dessert or snack her child is asking for. Holy Mother Church has—or once had—the same wisdom for her spiritual … Read more
Columnist Damon Linker has had one of those emotional meltdowns we have come to expect from Never-Trump dead-enders. Mr. Linker has his nose out of joint about a lot of things Trump. Right now, he’s cranky that Trump hasn’t conceded the election. It’s an assault on our fragile democracy or something. In a recent column … Read more
When I was a boy, every so often my father would take me to the National Press Building downtown for the gatherings of the Ottawa Chesterton Society. It was a merry, all-male club whose president used to say grinningly that GKC stood for “Girls Kan’t Come.” After enjoying a fine dinner with those well-dressed, garrulous … Read more
Father James Martin, S.J., says Catholics must place orphan children with homosexual men, or else they become guilty of a new sin: homophobia. He says religious liberty should not be used as a cover for this new sin. He also compared sodomitical relationships with (of all things) Methodism. After all, just like sodomites, Methodists don’t … Read more
G. K. Chesterton once wrote, “The unconscious democracy of America is a very fine thing. It is a true and deep and instinctive assumption of the equality of citizens, which even voting and elections have not destroyed.” I wonder what Mr. Chesterton would have said about mail-in ballots. After so many hopeful prayers and earnest efforts … Read more
The latest step of our descent into selfishness and perversity is a trend called “platonic parenting.” A woman finds a stud male who is pleasant enough, who will be her “friend,” who will make no claims upon her, so that he can get her pregnant and they can raise the resultant experiment together while they … Read more
A friend of mine recently called the police to lodge a complaint about a Halloween display in her neighborhood: a life-size figure of the horror-movie slasher, Freddy Krueger holding the bloody, butchered body of a baby in his clawed hands. The police responded that the display was not illegal in any way. My friend, intrepid … Read more
At the end of September, Public Discourse published a series of columns about voting for Trump. Or not. Mostly not. Mostly ewww. Brandon McGinley argues the usual yadda-yadda that Christians have no home in either political party. I don’t know about you, but my home is where my family lives. I don’t look for a … Read more