The Secret to Evangelizing the Nones
The falling away from Christianity by young people is often the result of them cultivating shallowness, superficiality, and solipsism as a philosophy of life.
Who Is to Blame When Catholics Leave the Church?
Some Catholics seem to think that if we all pretend, really really hard, that everything is perfect in the Church, then it will never occur to anyone to leave.
Blaming the Victim, Shooting the Messenger
When someone leaves Catholicism due to scandals in the Church, it does no good to accuse him of unfaithfulness or blame those who are exposing the crisis in the Church. But how should we respond?
Let Us Be Frank About Our Future
Fifty years ago, the percentage of religiously unaffiliated Americans was about five percent of the population, meaning that in just two generations that cohort has increased 500 percent, and most of that has been just in the last twenty-five years.
Catholics: Stop Imitating Protestants!
For the past sixty years, Catholics have been imitating Protestants in our liturgy, youth outreach, and other aspects of Catholic life. How has this impacted the Church, and is there a better way forward?
Our Incurious Bishops
At a time when religious practice is rapidly declining in this country, any rapidly-growing subset of the Faith is an anomaly that should interest our Catholic bishops.
The Collapse of Religion in 21st Century America
This century has seen a dramatic collapse in religious practice, including Catholicism, in America. What is causing so many people to lose their faith?
Evangelizing Our Reality-Denying Nonculture
How does the Church evangelize men and women of the West, who don’t even recognize basic reality?
Signs of Hope: A Catholic Experience of Street Evangelization
Whereas we expect to be met with hostility when we attempt to share our Faith with others, often the experience is just the opposite.
The Incredible Shrinking Catholic Church
The Catholic Church in the U.S. has been in constant decline for 50 years, but that downward trend experienced three significant accelerations during that time. Find out what they are and what Catholics can do to reverse the downward spiral.
The Pope and Synod: Hangmen of the Great Commission
I will not follow this new synodal listening blueprint, and I will not oblige Pope Francis’ reproach of Catholic proselytization. I will listen to God. And I will hold fast to Christ’s words of the Great Commission.
What Will Draw the “Nones” Back to Church?
The number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation—dubbed “the Nones”—has been growing steadily for two decades. The Nones are now a slightly larger percentage of the American population than Catholics. But they are not all atheists: half say they believe in God. The problem for many of them is organized religion: over 70 percent … Read more
Beware the Pitfalls of Curial Reform
A structural reform of the Roman Curia has been one of the goals of Pope Francis and a reason why he was elected pope. Even some in the Curia support the idea. The last two major reforms were made by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, yet many think what they did no longer … Read more
Evangelization and Doctrine Are Inseparable
We preach doctrine, and doctrine exists to be preached. If that sounds circular, then we understand correctly that doctrine and evangelization are two sides of the same coin. Recently announced plans for Pope Francis’s reform of the Roman Curia have produced euphoria among liberals and concern among conservatives that evangelization is being elevated over doctrine … Read more
Saving Fallen-Away Catholics with Luke Skywalker’s Help
How ought we to approach our family members and friends who have fallen away from the faith in the hopes of bringing them back? New survey data reports that, for the first time in our history, there are as many Americans with no religious affiliation as there are Catholics and Evangelicals. More significantly, of these … Read more
We Have a Better Story
There was a time when it was nigh impossible not to believe in God—not because of man’s irrational superstitions, as atheist popularizers tell it, but because of nature’s rational design. To early thinkers, the intelligibility of nature pointed to an ineluctable fact: a prime, non-contingent source of reality (i.e., the uncaused Cause, the One, Apeiron, … Read more
Do Muslims Need the Gospel?
Should Catholics evangelize Muslims? Currently there doesn’t seem to be much effort in that direction. For example, a recent Pew survey shows that 23 percent of Muslims in America no longer identify with that faith, and, of those, only 9 percent convert to a different faith. The other 91 percent effectively become secular. By the … Read more
Evangelizing the Secular Mind
Recently, a colleague inquired about how I successfully teach philosophy at a professional-minded college. As my colleague recognized, it is difficult to teach the liberal arts at a school where students embrace monetary practical values and goals. Through his query, I was reminded about how Catholics can evangelize with rhetorical mindfulness. Specifically, Catholics can begin … Read more
Why Are You Catholic?
Some people call me a street preacher. I’m not a street preacher. The label does roll off the tongue, but it also carries a fairly negative connotation. I could be more accurately described as a street questioner. I spend about a dozen Saturday mornings each year, standing on a street corner adjacent to the Farmer’s … Read more
Time for a Spiritual Health Assessment
The story of the rich man and Lazarus is more than a bracing reminder about our duty to the poor; it is a cautionary tale about misjudging our spiritual condition. In Jesus’s day, material wealth and well-being were commonly assumed to be divine blessings for personal righteousness: the rich were rich because of their moral … Read more