Last month Judicial Watch released an extensive report detailing the Food and Drug Administration’s program for buying the body parts of dead unborn babies for use in mice “humanization” projects. If the outrage from David Daleiden’s 2015 revelations that taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood sells unborn babies’ body parts wasn’t enough to change anything, maybe this is. … Read more
During the shutdown last spring, one of the unexpected blessings of quarantine was reconnecting with college friends on Zoom. We all had nowhere to be, so a group of us would meet about once a week to catch up. All of us were English or Classics graduates, so literature naturally came up as a topic … Read more
As we saw in the previous essay in this series, Oedipus Rex presents the riddle of man without offering any solution. It seems to beg innumerable questions on the nature of man and on the mystery of suffering without giving any answers. It would, however, be a gross and grotesque error to conclude from the … Read more
We do not live in a secular society. Most of us think we do. It is a truism of our time. Folks are flooding out of the Church and embracing the sunny uplands of rationalism, scientism, and freedom from the shackles of dusty, old, and even dangerous dogmas. They are becoming nones, glorious nones, at … Read more
Which is better for your own sake, to think that most people will treat you well, even if that is not quite true, or to think that most people will treat you badly? If it is the former, then people who discourage you do not have your best interest in mind. Why would they do … Read more
On May 10, 2021, over 500 Catholic priests throughout Germany will hold a mass blessing of gay unions that will take place in 50 different parishes. Most of these clerics have the unequivocal support of their bishops and have been told that they need not worry about canonical sanctions. This heterodox and defiant event, which … Read more
It has rightly been said that in order to appreciate the “Good News” of salvation we first need to recognize the bad news of damnation. This point appears to have been lost on the likes of Bishop Robert Barron with his echoing of 20th century Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar’s suggestion that we might … Read more
As many have observed, the Archbishop of San Francisco (Salvatore Cordileone) is lion-hearted. His namesake, King Richard, was a famous crusader, and with Before I Formed You in the Womb, his recent pastoral letter on abortion and Catholics in public office, Archbishop Cordileone steps forward as a prominent voice in our culture wars. Some Catholics … Read more
We have already entered into the “post-Francis” era. The post-Amazon Synod has failed, the Exhortation Querida Amazonia of 2 February 2020 has fallen on deaf ears, and the Exhortation Amoris Laetitia of 8 April 2016 has entered into history more for the criticisms that it received than for the new path which it opened. The latest … Read more
Every day since Ash Wednesday I have thought a little about a change in the liturgy of the ordinary form of the Roman Mass that has been described as “minor.” This change was in what is called the doxology of the collect prayers in the Missal. Instead of saying, “Through Jesus Christ Our Lord in … Read more
ESPN recently published an article about the Derek Chauvin verdict which graded the manner in which professional sports leagues kept their promises following the death of George Floyd. Specifically, how have they fought against racism and systemic violence of police toward African Americans? Several leagues and many players called out race as the determining factor … Read more
How do you solve a problem like Vatican II? While perhaps not as catchy as the classic Sound of Music tune, this question is far more complex than trying to marry off the future Baroness von Trapp. Catholics have been arguing over the council since before it even ended in 1965. While it was intended … Read more
A good description of the devil is “one who comes along when I’m very tired and suggests something very reasonable that I know I shouldn’t do.” This came to mind when seeing the responses to the recent Vatican reiteration of the Church’s teaching on homosexual acts. Some dismissed it; some of us were pleasantly surprised. … Read more
As the late, great Fr. James Schall reminded us, “St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that the greatest service that we can offer our neighbor is to know the truth, to speak the truth.” Austin Ruse offers this greatest service in his new book, Under Siege: No Finer Time to Be a Faithful Catholic. Full disclosure: Austin … Read more
Rod Dreher’s book The Benedict Option advocates a simple response to modernity: retreat, re-arm, and renew. Basing his battle plan on that of the sixth century founder of Western monasticism, Dreher argued that, just as St. Benedict abandoned the decadence of a declining Roman Empire, so Christians today should respond to a society crumbling into … Read more
There are few topics that are of greater importance than “rights.” At the same time, the topic of rights has been egregiously misunderstood and fraudulently represented. What are rights? Are they the exclusive domain of human beings? What is the basis of a right? How can rights be protected? Can there be rights without duties? … Read more
One thing can be stated for certain—the COVID-19 scar on humanity will be clearly visible for many years to come. If immediate steps are not taken to counter the narrative of misinformation as well as the measures taken to supposedly reduce the impact of COVID-19 and their consequences, we risk impacting humanity permanently—physiologically, immunologically, neurologically, … Read more
Attention to one’s duties to state in life prevents normal Catholics from keeping track of the latest depredations of cancel culture. That is as it should be. Staring at the societal collapse only leaves one’s soul depleted, while engendering a sterile rage. Reliable sources such as this one should be sufficient in fulfilling one’s obligation … Read more
I was away for a few days recently, an experience I cannot recommend enough. Few pleasures can compare with those that come undistracted by news media. What wonders it does for the soul! Of course, sooner or later, you’ve got to resurface and, in my case, that was at the airport where, amid a sea … Read more
Let me begin with a plain fact: the sacred liturgy is where most Catholics most of the time encounter the Church and her teaching. “The Church” and “the Magisterium” might well seem like abstractions until they take on concrete form in the liturgical rites—the texts, music, ceremonies, and other elements of worship—by which the Faith … Read more