culture

The Meaning of Marriage

What does a word mean, if it can mean anything? Is there a difference between a word meaning anything, and one that means nothing at all? This isn’t merely a semantic problem if that word is “marriage.” When I maintain that the definition of marriage has been all but lost, I intend both senses of … Read more

“Personally Opposed, But…” Five Pro-Abortion Dodges

In that passage from Orthodoxy so familiar that it is almost now cliché, G. K. Chesterton wrote that there are a thousand angles at which a man may fall but only one at which he stands. By this he argued for the unique, enduring character of orthodox Church doctrine, of the one, true, upstanding strand … Read more

A Village Called Wakefield

  Our family has finally called it quits. We’ve folded our tents and abandoned the strip mall and peep show known as American television. We still have the machine in the living room, whereon we can watch Going My Way, with Bing Crosby as the “progressive” Father O’Malley, back when progressive meant that he took … Read more

A Lot of Sound, No Music

Recently my family and I watched The Sound of Music for perhaps the twelfth time — probably the last great musical that Hollywood ever produced. It made me wonder if I could list the reasons why such a movie could not now be made. These reasons I offer below; but it seems to me that … Read more

Blessed Are Those Persecuted for Christ

The Beatitude before this one pronounces a blessing on those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Taken in isolation, it would be easy to read that Beatitude as a sort of general, “Rah, rah for the underdog” sentiment. But coupled with this saying, it takes on a very different sense; for this Beatitude is a … Read more

The Prophet of the Future

A friend who returned from a visit to France last week was enlivened by his experience of the new ecclesial communities there. He met members of the Community of the Beatitudes — a mixed community of men and women, married and celibate, who live a life with apostolic work and evangelization, Carmelite spirituality, and beautiful … Read more

Dr. Oz and the Fountain of Youth

The melancholy truth of the matter is that history has now taken us all quite beyond the tranquil days of fountain pen and writing paper and quiet hours at one’s desk. One has to have that gray machine, with all of its ancillary machines, dominating one’s study. I have managed to limit things to a … Read more

Blessed Are the Merciful, for They Shall Obtain Mercy

“Whereto serves mercy, but to confront the visage of offence?” asks Portia in The Merchant of Venice. It’s a good question, and one that most of us don’t really think about these days. That’s because, increasingly, we are a culture that only has “mercy” on people who “couldn’t help it” or “didn’t know any better.” … Read more

Evolutionary Art

It happens to most of us who like classic art: You’re reading an article about some contemporary artist who’s making millions selling “art” made from rumpled beds, carved-up corpses, or human waste, and you ask yourself, why? Why can’t art be heroic and life-inspiring? Why does art have to degrade and shock? And what is … Read more

Christ vs. the Power of Now

I have a lot of sympathy for New Age folks. Not sympathy with their ideas (if one can use such a strong word as “idea” for the quicksilver emotionalism and muddy mixture of suburban folk religion that is the New Age), but sympathy with the elemental movements of the heart that seem to animate much … Read more

Abortion and the Consumer Society

Pro-life Catholics fall into two camps on the issue of abortion: those who see it first and foremost as an individual moral failing, and those who consider it primarily a social moral failing.   There is nothing mutually exclusive about the two positions, of course, but that isn’t the problem. The real issue here is … Read more

The Disappearance of Song

My wife and I have become eager viewers of old movies. In particular we have grown to love the films directed by John Ford, not only those recognized as masterpieces, such as Stagecoach, Rio Grande, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance — we have enjoyed all the rest, too. We loved Drums … Read more

The Ninth Commandment

As we come to the Ninth Commandment, we again arrive in disputed territory. As you will recall, the Ten Commandments can be and have been split up differently so as to yield ten and not eleven commandments. Some Protestants break apart the First Commandment (yielding what I call the 1.5 Commandment against graven images). The … Read more

Be Not Afraid

Four years ago, I was in the hospital, laboring to deliver our seventh child. My husband paced the floors, and a television tuned to Fox News blared from a corner of the room.   Terri Schiavo was dying. And the world was watching.   I watched, too. Between contractions, waves of nausea, and breathing exercises, … Read more

The Eighth Commandment

It is a curious fact that the same book of Exodus that informs us of the command, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (20:16) begins with the story of a good solid practical lie:   Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and … Read more

Is Confession in Crisis?

  Is the sacrament of penance in crisis? One often hears that claim today, but it needs a closer look. My guess is that there’s a crisis all right — but not exactly this one.   Yes, Catholic confessions have plummeted in the last 40 years. But who would care to say that the awareness … Read more

The Sixth Commandment

  Our culture pretty much winks at adultery these days. It winks sort of like Maurice Chevalier, lecherously ogling "girls, girls, girls" in some old musical number. Adultery is sold as a charming but lovable fault, as with that adorable rascal Bill Clinton. Or else it is sold as exciting and sexy, as with Brangelina. … Read more

The Dark Night of the Civilization

I’ve lived through a lot of Lents, but none has felt quite like this one. Most years, we try as well or badly as we can to follow Christ a few steps into the desert — dipping our toes in the sand of some manageable sacrifice, penance, or works of charity. We give up some … Read more

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