What is the Church for? If a member of an uncontacted tribe entered a typical Catholic parish today, how long would it take him to learn an accurate answer to that question? Recently, Fr. James Grant wrote in these pages about putting the parish mission into action. He points out clear problems in the Church: … Read more
Editor’s Note: This is an exclusive excerpt from Joseph Pearce’s forthcoming book, Benedict XVI: Defender of the Faith. In May 2011, Georg Ratzinger, the pope’s brother, was asked during an interview what he considered to be the “focal points” of Benedict’s pontificate. Without hesitation, he singled out the pope’s efforts to restore the traditional liturgy: … Read more
One month after the election of Joseph Biden I met personally with the Archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron. I knew that he had been appointed to head a working committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)—a committee formed to address how the bishops would deal with a Catholic president who advocates legalized … Read more
Whenever I come across Groucho Marx’s advice about never wanting to join a club that would have someone like him as a member, I immediately think of the Roman Catholic Church, whose admission standards are considerably more relaxed. In fact, so wildly promiscuous is Old Mother Church that even Groucho Marx would be welcome. She … Read more
In a virtual conversation conducted earlier this year with His Excellency Bishop Robert Barron of Los Angeles, Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson bemoaned the overwhelming decline experienced by the Catholic Church in recent decades: My sense is that it’s because the Church does not demand enough of young people. And by not demanding enough it doesn’t … Read more
Imagine for just a moment if Christ called a meeting of His disciples to strategize how to moderate His tone so as not to offend the Pharisees. You likely can barely bring yourself to do it. As a Catholic, you know Christ wasn’t interested in being popular or not offending the establishment. One of the … Read more
In mid-March 2013, two men came to world power, each a leader of nearly one fifth of the population of the earth. And it looks as if Pope Francis and Xi Jinping will be leaders for life. Each has a new program for his people. One speaks of “accompaniment” and has initiated a “process of … Read more
Slight squeamishness settles about the minds of a certain kind of Catholic this Sunday. “Reimagined Catholics,” that is: Catholics more at home with America magazine and the National Catholic Reporter than The Baltimore Catechism and the unredacted Lives of the Saints. You know, those Catholics quite comfortable with Mr. Biden warmly received at our altar … Read more
On October 30th, Fr. James Jackson, FSSP, a well-known traditional Catholic priest, was arrested on charges of possession of child pornography and erotica. Jackson, author of a popular book on the traditional Latin Mass titled Nothing Superfluous, was a pastor for years at a Colorado FSSP (Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter) parish before being transferred … Read more
I read with keen interest a talk delivered by Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk on October 23 in Rome, during a conference organized by Voice of the Family, a lay-run Catholic pro-life, pro-family organization. Entitled “Ethical questions concerning Covid-19 vaccines,” the talk very ably covered the moral reasoning involved in evaluating the moral liceity of the … Read more
The future of contemplative orders in the Catholic Church is under siege, not by the oft-bemoaned vocations crisis, but by Archbishop Josè Rodrìguez Carballo, the secretary for the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. In 2018, Carballo released Cor Orans, a series of regulations on women’s monastic orders. Cor Orans … Read more
Cardinal Blase Cupich recently furthered The Big Lie of our times. This Lie of surpassing Bigness is not the systematic cover-up of decades of sexual abuse by ecclesiastical authorities, although this can certainly be laid at their feet. Neither is it the strange eagerness of many bishops to promote illegal immigration, resettlement, and the mass … Read more
I was giving a talk for adult education in the faith at a parish not my own, and the subject of cooperation in abortion was discussed. In the small group session, a young lady said to me that she was upset to feel criticized because she had accompanied a friend to an abortion clinic. “I … Read more
Overwhelmingly, the most common experience of Catholic priests, parishes, and dioceses is one of overwork, hackneyed originality, and shortness of funds. In truth, we are in survival mode; few parishes or dioceses have any growth or effective plans for the future years. Most Catholics no longer know what mission is. They hopelessly confuse it with … Read more
The “popular movements” are the vanguard of the Catholic social justice warriors. They consist of a vast menagerie of Leftist activists and community organizers found in political action groups, Basic Christian Communities, worker organizations, and indigenous peoples’ lobbies. They exist worldwide, especially in less-developed nations, and they implement the tenets of liberation theology. Pope Francis … Read more
Last month I wrote a piece entitled Unclean! Unclean! in which I criticized the decision of the Archbishop of Moncton to divide his flock between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, and to refuse any longer to nourish the latter with sacramental graces. That piece lasted some thirty-six hours before it was removed. Apparently, one doesn’t … Read more
I do not think of myself as a visionary or a prophet. Indeed, I am dubious of such phenomena. I’d prefer to call my experience a “mental image” or a “dream image.” It came to me in that in-between state when I was not sure if I was praying or dozing. But it really doesn’t … Read more
The Church, we know, cannot bless sin. It appears all right, however (even, evidently, laudatory), to have so-called Gay-Friendly Parishes (GFPs). Under that umbrella, these GFPs tolerate or encourage activities, associations, publications, shows, and similar celebrations (even Masses) that more orthodox parishes rightly spurn or condemn. At the outset, we must be clear that James … Read more
In my last Crisis article, I shared my difficult and painful experience of sexual misconduct inflicted by a Jesuit priest. Second to this traumatic experience was reporting the incident and being informed that nothing will happen to the accused. For those who have not, by the grace of God, experienced clergy abuse or misconduct, it … Read more
The Abrahamic Family House is scheduled to open in Abu Dhabi in 2022. It will consist of three main buildings—a mosque, a church, and a synagogue. A project of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity (HCHF), the Abrahamic Family House was inspired by the 2019 Document on Human Fraternity signed by Pope Francis and Grand … Read more