In May 1994, Pope John Paul II issued his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to deal with one specific issue: the Church’s ban on the admission of women to the ministerial priesthood. The Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide to the Teaching of the Church Sara Butler, Hillenbrand Books, $23, 132 pages In May 1994, … Read more
Four years have now passed since I brought an end, all of a sudden, to 20 years of thinking about becoming a Catholic, and under the impression (which I retain) that I had been simply instructed to do so by Mother Mary. This was while witnessing, but not exactly participating in, a Novus Ordo Mass … Read more
Dr. James Dobson is the founder of the largest, most influential, Evangelical organization in America, Focus on the Family. His radio show reaches two million listeners every day, and he’s easily the most important Evangelical leader in the country. As a result, Dobson’s political pronouncements carry a lot of weight among Christian voters. But these … Read more
It has been one year since Pope Benedict XVI’s ill-starred Regensburg Address. We say “ill-starred” because the media fixated on a side comment the pope made about Islam, apparently to clinch a depiction of the pope as intolerant. In the process, they obscured the luminous center of the pope’s speech, the relationship of science and … Read more
What to my wondering eyes appears on my computer screen today but a big advertisement from something called “Paula White Ministries.” It has that sort of Oprah vibe to it that many non-denominational women’s ministries do. Unlike the martial sense one gets from male-run Evangelical outfits that are about “Fighting for the Truth!” and “Making … Read more
The last eight Carmelite monks in America, perhaps even the world, live in a four-bedroom rectory in the mountains of northwest Wyoming. With 35 candidates in various stages of discernment, they hope to move 70 miles away to a 492-acre property near Carter Mountain once owned by “Buffalo Bill” Cody as his hunting preserve. … Read more
The recent partial-birth abortion case, in which the Supreme Court upheld certain restrictions passed by a state legislature, generated what has become the usual — and uncontroversial — anti-Catholic venting by the nation’s chattering classes. Commentators huffed that the majority in the case was composed of Catholics who, it was whispered, may have acted on … Read more
I am seated in the chancel of a glorious medieval church, just behind the great rood screen, one of only a handful in England that survived the Reformation. Originally, it would have been topped by a great cross, with figures of Our Lady and St. John alongside. Today, its intricate carving and delicate arches welcome … Read more
The English edition of L’Osservatore Romano, for the Fourth of July, carried a “Common Declaration” signed in the Vatican Private Library by Pope Benedict XVI and the Orthodox Archbishop H. B. Chrysostomos II of Nea Justiniana and All Cyprus. In No. 4 of this declaration, these two leaders, somewhat curiously, address themselves to “those who … Read more
This year marks the 60th anniversary of one of the most unfortunate and controversial Supreme Court decisions, Everson v. Board of Education. While the case had a good result, in that the Court ruled that Catholic parents could be reimbursed for their children using public buses to get to parochial school, the case has a … Read more
Last Thursday, 16 of the 25 Catholics in the U. S. Senate voted to overturn the “Mexico City Policy” to allow funding to overseas health clinics providing abortions. One of the 16 was freshman Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA) who ran against, and defeated, Sen. Rick Santorum as a “pro-life” candidate. It’s doubtful whether Casey, … Read more
Two years ago, the mainstream media gathered in a special conclave in Rome to discuss the disastrous election to the papacy of Ratzinger the Enforcer, God’s Rottweiler, the hardliner, inflexible, rigid, etc., blah blah. Some of us suggested to our television screens that the talking heads might want to wait more than a few seconds … Read more
At first blush, you’d be hard-pressed to figure how a trio of middle-aged nuns could be victims of the Church’s sex-abuse scandal. But there’s no other way to describe the plight of the three Sisters of Bethany — one of them a hunched and wrinkled 69 — who will soon be evicted from the convent … Read more
It’s not always easy these days to tell which of our two major political parties is the Stupid Party and which the Evil Party. But it remains true, as a conservative wag once said, that from time to time the parties collaborate on something that’s both stupid and evil and call it bipartisanship. Although I … Read more
I’m not a Republican because I think Republicans are fun or especially good company. If I were looking for sociality or cordiality in my political party, I would look elsewhere. I would also look elsewhere if the GOP ever turned its back on the issues that brought me into its fold in the first place: … Read more
A few years back, Russell Shaw wrote a terrific book called To Hunt, To Shoot, To Entertain: Clericalism and the Catholic Laity. It took its title from an amazing remark by a 19th-century English monsignor who loftily declared, “What is the province of the laity? To hunt, to shoot, to entertain. These matters they understand, … Read more
The first in a three-part series, where prominent Catholic writers explain and defend their political orientation. * * * In late 1993, I worked for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps to redevelop a poor, black neighborhood in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The area felt remote, almost uninhabited. From my front porch, I would often see lone … Read more
On July 3, 1907, in a decree bearing the lachrymose Latin title Lamentabili, the Vatican’s Holy Office, predecessor of today’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, condemned 65 propositions that it had found contrary to Catholic orthodoxy. Pope Pius X followed up two months later, on September 8, with an encyclical named Pascendi Dominici … Read more
The issue you’re holding marks the final print edition of crisis Magazine. Last month, I explained our reasons for moving the publication entirely online. This month, I want to give you the rest of the story. You see, while it’s true that financial necessity forced our hand a bit, it’s also true that … Read more
In The Stripping of the Altars—the single most important book in English Reformation studies in the past 50 years—Eamon Duffy demonstrates the vitality of popular religion in England in the years leading up the Reformation. Duffy’s thesis, comprehensively researched and cogently argued, turned inside-out—or, more precisely, upside-down—the received opinion concerning the Reformation in England, namely, … Read more