In this Crisis Magazine classic, Peter Kreeft outlines a three step plan for winning the culture war, and it doesn’t require money, power, or the media. To win any war, the three most necessary things to know are (1) that you are at war, (2) who your enemy is, and (3) what weapons … Read more
So here we are again, with another discussion about Catholics and the royal family. We have been here before, each time some royal falls in love with a Catholic, or even when royal marriages in general are discussed. This time it’s a bit different: There is no specific royal eyeing the aisle with … Read more
This has been a tough month for Catholics. I’m keenly aware of the time, because I have been straining at the leash wanting to write about the Legionaries of Christ. In lieu of articles, I’ve subjected my friends on the phone to fully formed paragraphs of commentary till they cried uncle — and devoured … Read more
This week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will meet with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican. With the debilitating illness of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Pelosi has become the de facto leader of dissident Catholic members of Congress. It’s only appropriate that Pelosi should take Kennedy’s place. When she became Speaker in January … Read more
In the space of less than six weeks, from mid-December to late January, four men died who played crucial roles in the shaping of American Catholicism as it stands today. The four were Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., the leading American Catholic theologian of the postconciliar era, who died December 12 at the age of 90; … Read more
After his Vigil Mass, the body of Msgr. William B. Smith was carried out the main doors of St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, for the last time, and I wondered how many thousands of entrances and exits he had made through those same doors since he had first arrived as a seminarian. It was not … Read more
A few years ago I wrote a book that was very pessimistic about the future of the Church in the United States. American Catholicism is a religion, I argued, in a state of probably irreversible decline. It is on the road, not to total disappearance exactly, but to a reduced state in which it will … Read more
The Catholic Church in the English-speaking world has a serious problem, and it is becoming ever more apparent in the digital age: It maintains a copyright on its ritual texts and charges royalties for printing and distributing them, while admitting only narrow exceptions. The Catholic Church is alone among major denominations in using this pay-to-pray … Read more
We see a lot of symbols every day, but most just tell the world how much something costs. They mark brand and status, not meaning. The famous Nike “swoosh” just means “expensive shoe.” A little horse on the pocket of a shirt just means “shirt trying to look expensive.” Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian … Read more
In 2001, as the full breadth of the sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. Catholic Church hit the pews, disbelief turned to outrage at our parish, St. Ignatius in San Francisco. Everyone demanded, “How did this happen?” Fingers pointed at the bishops, and their long lax handling of clerical abusers with counseling, penance, transfer, and … Read more
Twelve years before the genocide in Rwanda that would claim the lives of a million people, the “Mother of the Word” appeared to a pious 16-year-old girl, Alphonsine Mumreke, in the remote village of Kibeho. The Virgin’s first appearance was in late 1981 at a school administered by religious sisters whose students were predominantly Catholic, … Read more
If I were asked to summarize the typical cultural narrative of Christianity to which the average Westerner holds, it would be something like this: “Jesus was a good man who taught us to love each other, but tragically he was killed (nobody really knows why, but it probably had something to do with “religious conservatives” … Read more
The media and Catholic blogosphere continue to react in the opposing directions of joy or horror, depending on which side of the ecclesial aisle one stands, to the Vatican decree remitting the 20-year excommunications of four illicitly consecrated bishops of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). The New York Times adroitly captures the inner … Read more
When Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the temple discussing with the elders the ancient law of Israel, they did not understand what they had seen, nor what He meant when He said, “Did you not know that I must be about my father’s business?” Yet we are told that His mother “kept all these … Read more
One of the many peculiarities of contemporary Catholicism resides in the fact that so many people on the extreme left and extreme right of the Church are in basic agreement about the Second Vatican Council. In fundamental ways, they insist, Vatican II was a sharp break with the Catholic past. People on the left generally … Read more
The criticism of a recent column, “My New Year’s Wish for the Church,” forced me to think more deeply about the road to renewal in the Catholic Church. Several readers argued I was forcing Evangelical habits on a Catholic parish. Of course, I would still insist that Catholics need to be more welcoming to each … Read more
In this classic and controversial Crisis Magazine article, H.W. Crocker III lists ten things Catholics should be proud of. Do you agree? With its divine foundation, sanction, and mission, nothing could be more glorious than the Catholic Church. But, of course, many people — even many baptized Catholics — don’t see it that way. … Read more
Meat-and-potatoes history fans, take note: The Great Medieval Heretics is good, solid, reliable history written in a no-nonsense style. Michael Frassetto teaches history at the University of Delaware and is an expert in medieval religion, heresy, and politics. His book delivers a detailed account of the heretics of the medieval period, starting with the false … Read more
Last week, startled by the vehemence some Catholics expressed against Israel on her blog in the wake of the attack on Gaza, Dawn Eden noted a vital point about magisterial guidance when it comes to thinking about Israel’s right to exist: As a Jewish convert to Catholicism who desires ardently that everyone, especially my loved … Read more
There’s a certain type of pleasant American one meets at parties who likes to reminisce about visiting Britain in the 1950s. Standing, glass of wine in hand, in a room filled with people dressed in that muddy mix of clothes described as "smart casual," he tackles his subject with enthusiasm. Oh, he remembers … Read more