Imagine a young woman named “Kathryn” taking a morning bus ride to a major metropolitan area where she works as a middle manager in a successful graphic arts company. It is the day after the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of same-sex “marriage” and about three years after the Court upheld the vote of … Read more
Last month I suggested that the most effective argument for taking human nature, natural law, and natural human goods seriously is that doing so leads to a better way of life. It’s not hard to see why it should. People do not in fact invent their own ways of life. They’re too social, and the world is … Read more
When words lose their distinct meanings, they no longer sound clearly in our ears. They dissipate and fade. They buzz—and hence, they become “buzzwords.” This occurs most often to words that initially have powerful meanings. But the desire to harness the power of these words leads to their abuse, their twisting and mangling to suit … Read more
Editor’s note : With the kind permission of His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Crisis is pleased to share with our readers this approved translation of his analysis of Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The recently published apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (AL), which contains a plethora of spiritual and pastoral riches with regard to life within marriage … Read more
General Mark W. Clark, whose Fifth Army led the capture of Rome in June of 1944, was the last of the fighting World War II field commanders to die (at age 87 in 1984). He never doubted the importance of the role America played in the liberation of Europe. Nor the idealism that moved so … Read more
At the Yorktown surrender in 1781, the British band played a tune traditional to the ballad “The World Turned Upside Down.” In the 1640s the ballad had been written as a broadside against the suppression of Christmas festivities by the Puritan parliament. In some ways, the world had indeed been turned upside down, at least … Read more
“We were always encouraged to read, and had all the masters that were necessary.” ~ Miss Elizabeth Bennet The last thing a high school graduate wants is books—I get it. And high schoolers that grew up in bookish families want books least of all—I get that, too (although my two collegiate children would demur on … Read more
What’s the biggest news story of our time? What has been the biggest story for the last decade and one-half? Answer: the resurgence of Islam, and, in particular, the rapid spread of Islamic jihad. But, with a few exceptions, you would never know it from reading the Catholic press. If you look through the list … Read more
Human history contains plenty of dragons. It was the serpent, the most cunning of all the animals (Gen 3:1) who frightened Adam from the side of Eve: she who was taken from his side, and thus should have been inseparable from her protector. The serpent then frightened Eve away from her God, and has turned … Read more
Are you a prisoner of cynicism? In a godless world where men tend to hedge their bets on man before anything else, it is not surprising that many experience existential letdowns. Man is naturally imperfect, and thus it is natural that purely anthropological philosophies are suspicious—even contemptuous—of any kind of idealism. This attitude degenerates into … Read more
By the deafening silence, one can assume the “Spiritual Friends” are disappointed by the Holy Father’s apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, at least as related to their favorite topic, same-sex attraction. No doubt their hopes were high when the controversial interim report was produced at the Extraordinary Synod in the Fall of 2014. It was as … Read more
Unlike the conspiracy theory that William Shakespeare was really the more educated Earl of Oxford, the rival Christopher Marlowe, or the polymath Francis Bacon, the story of the Catholic Shakespeare is now a mainstream if not a consensus view among scholars. Stretched to the edge of credulity, using arguments and speculations from scholars both Catholic … Read more
Ten months ago, David Daleiden and his investigative journalism group, The Center for Medical Progress, released the first fruits of their inaugural study, Human Capital. Like many Americans, I didn’t immediately watch the first ten-minute video with Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Dr. Deborah Nucatola. As the president of a non-profit law firm, I am very … Read more
The headline talked of more blood as the usual suspects called for the killing of Down syndrome children not yet born. I started to feel anger, but then the image of a face came into my mind. And, as it did so, glancing at the calendar, I wondered if the headline and that image were … Read more
A recent New York Times article revealed that 90 percent of teens in the predominantly Muslim districts of Molenbeek and Schaerbeek think of the Brussels terrorists as heroes. The main thing to notice here is not that these youth have warped values (which they do), but that their heroes are people who are willing to … Read more
Video games are a staple in our society, and no matter how much ink and venom is spent lamenting their obsession in our culture, short of the apocalypse, video games are here to stay. Therefore, it behooves teachers, parents, leaders, and the like to familiarize themselves with video games and not to settle for mere … Read more
It always seemed as if Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, was in trouble for something. A 1956 article in the New York Times describes an instance in which Day was fined $250 for being the landlord of a building that failed to comply with the fire code. In addition to the fine … Read more
On April 6, in a low-turnout (32 percent) non-binding referendum, the Dutch people strongly voted against (61-38 percent) ratifying an EU economic association agreement with Ukraine, even though the other 27 EU member states ratified the agreement. The Dutch government has said it will honor the results by reviewing the agreement to “look for a … Read more
The aftershocks continue after the ground-shaking April 8 release of Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia. Extreme reactions vary from “we don’t have to talk about sin any more” and “conscience trumps everything” and “Communion for everybody” and “now we can contracept” all the way to “Francis is a heretic and … Read more
By now many hundreds if not thousands of commentaries have been penned on Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (AL). They range from condemnations to lavish welcomes and then those analysts somewhere in the middle who praise the good and hold back criticism. In this mix there are the particularly odd responses as the one … Read more