Award-winning actress and sex symbol Raquel Welch has a message for young women today, and it’s not what you might expect. In a piece on CNN Opinion called, “It’s sex o’clock in America,” Welch comments on the effects the Pill has had: These days, nobody seems able to “keep it in their pants” or honor … Read more
One thing we Catholics have known since almost the beginning: Most statements in the Bible can be misread, misapplied, and torn out of context to serve as the pretext for hysterical balderdash. Martin Luther famously used his private reading of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans to invent a whole new theology of salvation, … Read more
Apparently there’s a TV new show about a big family. The Slate reviewer wasn’t thrilled: [T]hey have everything you have, only bigger, better, and cooler. If you shelled out for one hipster pageboy cap, Bob has two, in wool and velour, plus a straw fedora and a ski cap he wears indoors. If your wife is … Read more
Last week, hell froze over when America‘s Michael Sean Winters complimented George Weigel’s criticism of the New York Times. Weigel, distinguished senior fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, also wrote a defense of Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church in The Philadelphia Inquirer today. Weigel points out that the Church, more than any … Read more
Recently, one of my readers wrote me: Here is a thought I’ve come back to after a time. Understand that I come at this as someone who has a bit of detachment from the idea of “love one’s country,” etc.; not of disdain, or despite of fellow man, but as one who can look hard … Read more
Perhaps the most telling sign that our country is headed for trouble is the phenomenon of the shrinking middle class. Once the hallmark of America’s promise, America’s middle class was dealt a serious setback last year against the backdrop of the imminent death of the domestic automobile industry. In the past, America’s salvation … Read more
In an effort to show that folks like Michael Sean Winters at America magazine are not one-dimensional characters, I post his interesting comment on Catholics for Choice. In the midst of the various disagreements between the Catholic Left and Catholic moderates, everyone tends to be painted in black and white (I get that a … Read more
In an effort to show that folks like Michael Sean Winters at America magazine are not one-dimensional characters, I post his interesting comment on Catholics for Choice. In the midst of the various disagreements between the Catholic Left and Catholic moderates, everyone tends to be painted in black and white (I get that a … Read more
“Don’t mess with nuns!” is a comment I’ve often heard over the years from cradle Catholics who were taught by them. The question now arises whether the undecided Catholic members of the House will be influenced by the 60 nuns — each a leader of her religious order — who signed a letter to members … Read more
Big news from the Archdiocese of Washington this week: Catholic Charities announced that they would no longer be offering spousal health-care benefits for employees, rather than be forced to acknowledge same-sex partners under DC’s new law. In a statement on Tuesday, Archbishop Donald Wuerl justified their decision: “The Catholic Church teaches to pay a just … Read more
All utopias are alike; but every utopian is unhappy in his own way. Â A new movie, Michael Hoffman’s The Last Station, attempts to portray the last days of Leo Tolstoy, when the great writer had turned from delving into the complexities of individuals’ loves and sorrows to the more streamlined task of issuing treatises … Read more
I always enjoy the comments of Michael Sean Winters at America‘s blog — though he did annoy me once or twice. His latest, a response to my thoughts about the possibility of a Catholic Tea Party, is insightful, but it avoids the substance of my argument. Winters attributes my agitated state of mind to the … Read more
I always enjoy the comments of Michael Sean Winters at America‘s blog — though he did annoy me once or twice. His latest, a response to my thoughts about the possibility of a Catholic Tea Party, is insightful, but it avoids the substance of my argument. Winters attributes my agitated state of mind to the … Read more
Catholics in America have more reasons than ever to worry about the future of the law. The legal practice of the Catholic faith in the United States is already becoming difficult because of funding abortions via our taxes, scuttling our philanthropic organizations rather than supporting same-sex marriage, or paying for the artificial contraception of Catholic … Read more
Over the past decade, the mysterious epithet “neo-Catholic” has been tossed around now and then. I first encountered it courtesy of Rev. Joseph O’Leary, the famed “Spirit of Vatican II” combox denizen who seems to have endless amounts of time to troll the net on behalf of gay causes and no time to, like, … Read more
When somebody says “poetic justice,” what that really means is the kind of justice dished out by poets. In which case, you’d better hope the poet’s a person like Dante or T. S. Eliot, and not some maniac like Marinetti (who wanted to burn Italy’s libraries and museums, then start culture from scratch), or a … Read more
Crisis Magazine music critic Robert R. Reilly sat down with noted writer, political thinker, and Georgetown University professor Rev. James V. Schall, S.J., to talk about the life of the mind, the future of the West, and lessons learned over a long career in education. ♦          ♦          ♦ Robert R. Reilly: What is the … Read more
American Catholics have endured internal polarization for many years, but lately the split has become more visible, vocal, and vitriolic. For this we largely have Barack Obama to thank. Â Before Obama’s admirers start screaming — itself a sign of the polarization — I hasten to say I don’t particularly blame the president. Obama has … Read more
Like most of you, I was edified by the pagan, Viking funeral that marked the passing of that champion of life, Sen. Edward Kennedy. I thought it particularly fitting the way they floated his human remains down the Charles River out to the bay in a burning boat made of the car he’d driven at … Read more
In 1978, a young scholar in his early 30s named Bill Donohue, working on a book about the ACLU, went to New York City to interview its founder, Roger Baldwin. Donohue asked him why the ACLU was opposed to a moment of silent “meditation” in the classroom. Baldwin responded, “I suppose you could get by … Read more