O martyrs of God, your race is run, All thanks to his redeeming Son. You’ve vanquished every foe, Eternal joys are yours to know. “What is uniquely Christian,” declared Hans Urs von Balthasar near the end of the Second Vatican Council—widespread forgetfulness of that fact having seeped into the soul of Christendom—“begins and ends with … Read more
COVID-19 restrictions limited attendance at the beatification Mass of Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński on Sunday in Warsaw, Poland, to seven thousand of the faithful. The beatification had already been delayed more than a year due to the virus lockdowns. But the restrictions and cloudy weather could not limit the sheer joy of the Cardinal’s countrymen, nor … Read more
Hot Take: the movie Hostiles, starring Christian Bale, is a love story. One wouldn’t think this gritty, modern western would be a love story, given that it’s rife with suffering and violence. But it is precisely because of its real and raw depiction of lived human experience that it is a love story in the … Read more
According to the Western press, the main takeaway from Pope Francis’ address to the bishops of Slovakia was: limit your homilies to ten minutes! We know that the advice’s “theological note” (the degree of how authoritatively binding a teaching is) is de fide definita because (a) he’s said it before and (b) it was accompanied … Read more
Many conservatives say the Culture Wars are over and we have lost. Many people look around our culture and society and see utter destruction. They see grade-schoolers being taught that the gay-sex drug PrEP is just peachy. They see kids being taught there is this thing called anal sex. Seventh graders in my local school … Read more
When I was first married, my husband and I agreed that when children came along, we would homeschool them. I had been gifted with a homeschool education from kindergarten through 12th grade and couldn’t imagine any alternative for our future family. “But,” said my husband, who is himself a product of excellent Catholic schools, “if … Read more
After reading David Larson’s two-part series in Crisis on the horrific abuse that members of the clergy enacted on vulnerable adults, I became aware, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, of a troubling experience of sexual misconduct that occurred over ten years ago that I had completely forgotten and buried out of shame. In … Read more
One thing that every COVID-19 mandate has in common—masks, lockdowns, and now vaccines—is that they originated in the dictatorship of technocracy. By this term, I am referring to the combination of applied science and statecraft as the solution to the problem of suffering and death. The underlying historical context of this phenomenon is the centuries-old … Read more
Failure in Church leadership, a rejection of faith by the culture, and ruthless attacks on the dignity of the unborn are systemic in our age. Sorrow, loneliness, and fear for the future due to the present moment are all palpable feelings in the human condition for our current time period. When the societal storm waves … Read more
Is there a more contentious issue today than the topic of vaccination? I would say lockdowns, but even nations who were once mad with lockdown-lust have recently admitted that shutting down civilization is perhaps not a sustainable way to live; for evidence of this, see the recent news out of Australia. If there has been … Read more
I’ve heard a lot of gloating in the last few weeks, as Catholics of a certain sort enjoy the discomfiture of their brothers who attend the Latin Mass. Evil motives prompt those brothers, they say: hatred of Pope Francis, disdain for Vatican II, unease with women in the sanctuary, and a Right-wing politics that makes … Read more
The biggest problem with critical thinking is the critical part. It’s not socially acceptable; it’s not nice to be critical. And thinking? Well, we’ll get to that. As I was mindlessly dawdling on Facebook (which is about the only thing one can do there), and was just at the point of chastising myself, I came … Read more
What do Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Stephen Douglas, James Buchanan, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden have in common? All of course have been either Democratic presidents or presidential contenders spanning the long history of the oldest political party in continuous existence on the face of this earth. But they have … Read more
(Note: This previously unpublished article was written on September 14, 2001, from the office of Fr. John A. Perricone at St. Agnes Rectory in Manhattan, some two miles away from Ground Zero. Much of the horror of that day has faded. Even more so, its urgent lessons. Much of America seems to have moved on … Read more
More than most of Shakespeare’s plays, Julius Caesar begs a good many questions. Who are the heroes? Where are the out and out villains, the machiavels, who are so evident in many of Shakespeare’s other plays? Where are the women? Is their relative absence significant? What does it say about politics and politicians? What does … Read more
As we all know, Twitter is a cesspool of the obtuse, the oblivious, and the opinionated. Nothing brings out this unfortunate trifecta more than a blindingly obvious statement of fact. Recently, I tweeted through the Crisis Magazine twitter account: “Vaccine Mandates are contrary to Catholic moral teaching.” Vaccine mandates are contrary to Catholic moral teaching. … Read more
In Northern Virginia, where critical race theory, gender ideology, and emptied classrooms because of COVID-19 have sparked protests by angry parents of public-school students, a parish priest is taking up the legendary Archbishop “Dagger John” Hughes’ mission of helping Catholic children get out of public schools by every means possible. Archbishop Hughes founded the Catholic … Read more
You’re the new pastor over a church that offers a Mass that attracts hundreds of Millennial and Gen Z Catholics. That Mass has inspired lay apostolates for your parish, including one for men to serve at the altar. What do you do? Thank God for this gift that you inherited from your predecessor and do … Read more
Many baseball fans have been alarmed, if not disgusted, by recent news regarding Los Angeles Dodgers star pitcher Trevor Bauer, who is under investigation for allegations of sexual assault. According to the accuser, Bauer physically and sexually assaulted her on two separate occasions, including while she was unconscious. As troubling as such a story is … Read more
Faithful pro-life Catholics, whether Republican or Democrat or whatever political stripe, were treated to a sad spectacle last week. A potentially monumental victory for the long-suffering pro-life movement—a Texas bill banning abortions upon hearing an unborn baby’s heartbeat, which received crucial support by a majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices—was denounced by a Catholic president … Read more