We’re all aware of the heated dispute inside the Catholic Church regarding whether baptized Catholic pro-abortion politicians—and in particular, President Joe Biden—should be admitted to Holy Communion. Instead of treading over well-worn territory, I want to turn to the liturgy, which, as the late Benedictine theologian Aidan Kavanagh defined, is “the faith of the Church in … Read more
Yesterday Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill resigned from his position at the USCCB as a general secretary with responsibility for overseeing sex abuse cases. What caused the resignation of the highest-ranking non-bishop Church official in the country? He was caught regularly using apps that connect men who want to have sex with other men. An article by … Read more
The sadness that many of us feel about the release of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes restricting the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass cannot be denied. There is great uncertainty as to whether those of us who attend the Latin Mass regularly will continue to have access to it. While some bishops—like the courageous … Read more
In the eleventh chapter of John’s Gospel, we are told that Jesus wept over the death of His friend Lazarus. It’s commonly believed this was simply our Lord expressing his grief. However, some scholars argue that our Lord’s tears in this instance were an expression not just of grief but of a holy and terrible … Read more
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” That is from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who is one among our gallery of honored men and women at Magdalen College of the … Read more
In our days, we are seeing an intensification of the spiritual battle as the situation within the Catholic Church continues to deteriorate. Battles have casualties, and some of those casualties are Catholics who have lost their faith or are tempted to leave the Church because of the outrageous corruption, infidelity, and cowardice of its leaders … Read more
If revenge, as the proverbial saying has it, is a dish best served cold, then the story of Joseph in the Book of Genesis provides all the ingredients for a perfect meal. Sold into slavery by the treachery of his brothers, Joseph is carried off into Egypt where, after years of exile and loss, he … Read more
The author of the late-medieval Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is unknown. He was a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, which means that he was writing in the late fourteenth century, and he is probably the author of three other works, including the long allegorical poem Pearl. Although the Gawain Poet was living … Read more
The bomb has been dropped. Today Pope Francis issued his motu proprio Traditionis custodes severely restricting the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass. In effect, it wipes out Pope Benedict’s 14-year-old motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, which was issued in order to help those faithful who “continued to be attached with such love and affection to … Read more
On Monday, June 7, 2021, a human body was discovered in a black plastic garbage bag buried deep inside a trash container located in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The foot had been severed from the left leg, the left leg severed from the lower torso, the right hand severed from the right arm—and the rest of … Read more
Homosexual advocates like Eve Tushnet, Fr. James Martin, and Kirsten Powers do not like what they derisively call “conversion therapy.” They use the phrase to conjure up such horrors as boys strapped to tables being shown gay porn and getting electrical shocks. They use it to conjure up what they call “praying away the gay,” … Read more
In J.F. Powers’ 1963 National Book Award winner Morte D’ Urban, the acceptance of lavish gifts sets the protagonist, Fr. Urban Roche, into a spiral of spiritual conflict. In this comic masterpiece, Fr. Urban, a priest in a fictitious religious order that is noted in history “for nothing at all,” is an ecclesiastical hot shot … Read more
A considerable part of education is merely restating the obvious. No one would answer the question, “Is the Church a hotel?” in the affirmative when the question is stated this bluntly. Nonetheless, the heresy of identifying her with a hotel sneaks in through the back door. In this way, what should be obvious is obscured … Read more
Does the world need yet another article about wayward Catholic politicians and the Eucharistic scandal they and complicit bishops are providing? That depends. Persistence is optional if salvation is optional. One does not stop banging the pan with a spoon while the bear is still in the kitchen. We walk among saints and monsters. Such … Read more
Of all the civilizations of the world, the West is the most beleaguered and under attack. Making matters worse, it is often the children of the West—the descendants of those heroes, martyrs, and patriots who labored and died for faith, family, and fatherland—that are leading the desecration of Western Civilization. What, exactly, happened? The enemy … Read more
“This is my body!” “My body, my choice!” Those are the mantras, of course, of the pro-choice lobby. And they didn’t start in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. In my unfortunate life as an authority on the communist movement, which means reading a lot of dark stuff, I found communists using similar slogans in the … Read more
I have been thinking lately about the three sons of Noah. Some people have had monsters for parents, and they should tell their admonitory stories, as dispassionately but as accurately as they can, lest others fall into the same patterns of wickedness. Yet most people have for parents just the ordinary stuff of human sinners … Read more
I’ve noticed a fear pervading many Catholic discussions about the problems in the Church today. Whether the topic is something Pope Francis said, or the role of Vatican II, or the latest bureaucratic blatherings of the USCCB, there’s a fear that something will happen that will falsify the Catholic religion—that the Catholic Church is a … Read more
The U.S. Supreme Court, on the last day of the 2020-2021 session, in a 7-3 vote—the dissenters were Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas—declined to hear the case in which floral artist Barronelle Stutzman was sued by Washington State Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson and the American Civil Liberties Union after she refused … Read more
When your country, society, and culture are turned upside down by ravenous forces of Godless philosophies, you must respond. Saint Benedict knew he had to do something to safeguard the Faith and cultivate his personal holiness, so he went to the desert and changed the Catholic landscape for centuries. If we want democracy rather than … Read more