The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the anti-poverty program run by the USCCB, came under fire this past year for funding groups who were explicitly supporting abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage. After its internal investigation, the CCHD claimed there were problems with only five groups out of the 51 listed as problematic by the … Read more
I arrive at the mission, having driven past the casino and its glittering billboard, stucco and neon mixing garishly among the saguaro. I’ve come to take pictures of this beautiful but challenging monument, indulging my photographic interest in a place rich in Catholic tradition that I have somehow never heard of before coming to this … Read more
In my 15 years with Crisis Magazine, the Morley Institute, and now InsideCatholic, the conversation that most often reoccurs is the one about the fate of the Catholic university and college. It begins inevitably with alumni complaining about the latest anti-Catholic outbreak on the hallowed grounds of their former college campus and ends with their … Read more
As summer lurches to an end, the hallucinatory carnival that is America continues to spin like a carousel set to “liquefy”: Pro-terrorist Muslims plan an end-zone dance at NYC’s Ground Zero in the form of a towering victory mosque — while the city blocks rebuilding of a Greek Orthodox church crushed by the falling Towers … Read more
Too often, Catholic commentators, including myself, speak about American bishops in the plural. The existence of a national bishops’ conference unfortunately encourages this habit, one that obscures a basic fact about the Catholic Church: It is individual bishops who are responsible for sanctifying the lives of the Catholic faithful. There’s no better antidote to the … Read more
Christianity is called the “Good News” because it brings hope — the hope of both forgiveness and everlasting life. That matters because we are fallen creatures, prone to sin and death. The New Testament warns of that false comfort zone where we say, “Peace and security,” for that is when Christ will come, like a … Read more
Twenty years ago, the opposition of certain Catholic college leaders and professors to Pope John Paul II’s Ex Corde Ecclesiae was strident. They claimed the Vatican’s guidelines for Catholic colleges would encourage dictator-bishops to violate academic freedom. Non-Catholic faculty members would sue bishops and colleges for discrimination. Colleges would become second-rate catechetical programs. Many others … Read more
Fribourg is a small town on the border between French and German Switzerland. A visitor would not be exaggerating if he claimed that there was a church on almost every street corner. In that part of the world, it is not unusual to see so many churches. What did catch my attention, however, was St. … Read more
On January 29, the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Death Penalty (CMN) was launched. According to its executive director, Karen Clifton, the CMN was created “with the encouragement of the USCCB.” The support of the bishops’ conference is substantial. The Coordinating Committee includes both Kathy Saile, the director of the Office of Domestic Concerns, … Read more
I recently attended the memorial service of a distinguished and much-loved retired judge. He was a devout member of the Jewish faith, and the service was held at a well-known London synagogue. There were some fine tributes to him: He served Britain with dedication, giving of his best and bringing honor to our legal system. … Read more
When asked my politics, I sometimes say, “Papal Insurrectionist.” In the classic Catholic novel Dawn of All, by Robert Hugh Benson, I get my wish. Here is a future wherein the world (or at least Europe and the Americas and increasing parts of Asia and elsewhere) has come to be “really and intelligently Christian.” And … Read more
A lot of people seem to think that the Church functions according to the principle, “That which is not forbidden is compulsory.” So many folk seem to be under the impression that there is a black and white magisterial answer to everything, and that “You’re with us or agin’ us” is the watchword for all … Read more
“Submit yourselves one to another, as in the Lord,” says St. Paul, and then he follows his command with a list of applications, involving relationships among husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, citizens and their magistrates, and all Christians and their elders in the Faith. The Christian life, as the saints and … Read more
Lately, I have been hearing a lot about how the primitive Church was not Roman Catholic. I don’t know why it is, but this information keeps bursting upon me in the most unlikely settings — a lunch party near the sand dunes, cocktails on the upper east side — where a kindly soul informs me … Read more
The prudential arguments Catholics have on subjects such as immigration, welfare programs, and government spending all too often descend into mutual, willed incomprehension — in which each side holds fast to its caricature of the other and insulates itself against learning a scintilla from the “enemy.” While this is counterproductive, it’s also kind of fun. … Read more
Archbishop Elias Chacour of the Melkite Church in Israel is a remarkable man. Nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, the author of three books on religion, and now in his early 70s, he’s an internationally recognized leader in the effort to find a peaceful solution to the hostilities between Jews and Arabs. “We … Read more
One of the sillier things one sometimes hears about the Catholic Church is communicated in jokes like the one about the guy who gets to the Pearly Gates and is ushered inside by St. Peter. As Pete’s showing him around the Elysian Fields, they pass by a little gothic structure and hear voices inside praying … Read more
Passages in Scripture tell us that, when the Lord comes again, few believers will remain. Looking around the world, it is not hard to believe. Of the strict essence of the Christian teaching and practice, believers are a distinct minority. Both the Old and the New Testaments paint a dark picture of the number of … Read more
You are cordially invited to join the board, staff, writers and friends of InsideCatholic in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, September 16, for our 15th Annual Partnership Dinner & Dance. This year, we’ll be honoring Bishop Robert F. Vasa, D.D., of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon. In an era of lukewarm, go-along-to-get-along prelates, Bishop Vasa … Read more
It’s an interesting question. Did Leonardo wear a cilice or use a discipline? Though not mentioned in Dan Brown’s popular fantasy novel, The Da Vinci Code — with its bizarre and misleading description of corporal mortification — and granting Leonardo a certain religious fervor, it’s possible. The cilice, a sharp chain worn around the leg, … Read more