“What the hell is an encyclical?” Who the heck asked such a question? Hint: the person who did the asking was a Catholic, a Democrat, and a candidate for president. That narrows things down more than a bit. Hmmm. . .might it have been John Kennedy or Joe Biden? No and no. The answer is … Read more
“Say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’” (Isaiah 40:9) In 2015, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Nostra aetate, the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews issued a document entitled “The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable” (hereafter, GC). Although some years have passed since its publication, this text still … Read more
“Not many of you should become teachers. As you know, we teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others.” (James 3:1) What happens in our country’s college classrooms matters. It matters, of course, to the students themselves. It matters to their professors. And it matters, greatly, to the country, whose reins of leadership will … Read more
Recently, an online firestorm erupted among Catholics surrounding a recent letter from the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X arguing for the moral permissibility of taking an available COVID-19 vaccine if the situation were grave enough to warrant the act. My intent here is not to evaluate all the details of the letter, or to … Read more
Republicans’ and Democrats’ rival interpretations of the relationship between their parties’ past and present racial policies are well-known. Republicans stress their predecessors’ role in the elimination of slavery and their party’s consistent support for racially neutral law—arguing that Democrats have merely changed which race they legally privilege. Democrats claim racial neutrality was a “first step” … Read more
The Economy of Francesco is the name of an initiative of Pope Francis in which he invites “young economists, entrepreneurs and change-makers of the world” to address the world’s economic problems. The project seeks to be an explosive source of energy and new ideas for a tired world in need of change. The primary vehicle … Read more
A great sea change came over my life when, quite by accident, I first stumbled upon a copy of Joseph Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity. Based on a set of lectures, given in the summer of 1967, that captivated large numbers of German university students, it appeared in English two years later. I discovered it several … Read more
In the recently-released book The Case for Patriarchy, Catholic writer and teacher Timothy J. Gordon boldly proclaims the “kingship of the social reign of Christ, King of the Patriarchy!” Gordon’s well-researched, deeply insightful work deconstructs feminism’s numerous nostrums that have upended modern life in the name of a false paradise of sexual egalitarianism. Gordon traces … Read more
Dystopian fiction can offer a curious consolation in dark times. There is comfort of a sort in the knowledge that our current troubles were foreseen by others: this shows, if nothing else, the evils of our age are not as chaotic as they sometimes seem. On the contrary, they conform to a pattern that can … Read more
Over the past few months, a number of Catholics have expressed their exasperation with Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone—one of our best American bishops, by all accounts—for admitting on the Crisis Point podcast that he wasn’t ready to deny Nancy Pelosi Holy Communion for her rabid and long-time pro-abortion advocacy. If even one of our strongest bishops … Read more
For the past two months I have not known what is going on with liberal Catholics like Mark Shea, or Simcha Fisher, or Dawn Eden, or the guy who runs WherePeterIs, or any of the rogues’ gallery I’ve had so much fun with on Twitter these past few years. The reason is that in early … Read more
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that is all.” (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland) … Read more
The Washington Post recently published an op-ed by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco defending the many Catholic bishops who have publicly considered barring pro-choice Catholic politicians from the Eucharist. But Archbishop Cordileone went a step further: he declared his support for the recent anti-abortion legislation in Texas, including praising the Lone Star State for … Read more
In the 1970s, during the heyday of the chaos that followed Vatican II, a French bishop, when asked why he did not more firmly address the crisis, replied, “What can I say? I wasn’t chosen because they thought they might find a prophet in me, but just an administrator.” The Church has always struggled to … Read more
New York’s new governor, Kathy Hochul, recently sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, calling on him to censor pro-life content on his social media platform because of the Heartbeat Bill in Texas. Her letter was framed in the context of Facebook’s trailblazing manner of quashing misinformation over the course of … Read more
Like most of you, I was surprised when I learned that the Holy Father was apparently disparaging EWTN in his private conversation with the Jesuit community in Slovakia. My reaction to the news, which was dropped by Father Spadaro, the editor of La Civiltà Cattolica, took several stages of deduction. First of all, I was … Read more
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich recently mandated that all priests and employees of his diocese receive vaccinations against COVID-19. While medical exemptions to his mandate will be granted, religious exemptions will be refused. You read that correctly. With a broad appeal to the “common good,” the cardinal is refusing to recognize individual objections of conscience. Perhaps … Read more
In her National Catholic Reporter article “Catholics seeking ‘religious’ exemptions from vaccines must follow true church teaching on conscience”, M. Therese Lysaught, a professor of bioethics and a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, maintains that Catholics in good conscience MUST receive a COVID-19 vaccine. She provides a template for a “dialogue” with … Read more
Swiss Bishop Joseph Maria Bonnemain apparently has publicly accepted the creation of “same-sex civil unions.” Accordingly, he says that it is “good and right” that there be “different forms of stable relationships” that are “given rights and duties.” Again, “It is for me self-evident that other forms of partnership can be oriented toward an enduring … Read more
Conservatives long to recapture “the ideal of a gentleman.” But is this another example of cheap moralizing and lamenting the good days gone by? Do they themselves really understand what they aim to recover? Aaron Renn thinks not. In The Masculinist, he argues that today’s nostalgia for the gentleman ignores the historical context which made … Read more