Normally the average Catholic need not worry about a group of academicians who meet every year to discuss the “historicity” of the Gospels. These debates have been going on inside ivy walls for over a century. But with the recent national road-show of the Jesus Seminar, founded in 1985 and led by Protestant scholar Robert … Read more
This month, Crisis is devoting an entire issue to a single topic, something we have never done before. What one issue could be so fundamental to Catholics everywhere? The conflict between the Holy See and the presidents of most of the approximately 200 U.S. colleges and universities that claim to be Catholic. The U.S. bishops … Read more
Crisis recently had the opportunity to speak with Bishop Allen H. Vigneron, rector of Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, Michigan, about today’s seminarians. Drawing on more than 14 years of experience, he was able to explain why he thinks today’s seminarians represent a promising new generation of future priests. This interview is the fifth installment … Read more
Robert Reilly recently spoke with Swiss composer Carl Rütti on the occasion of his 50th birthday. Born in 1949, Rütti grew up in Zug, Switzerland. He has been widely recognized for his compositions in England, whose great choral tradition inspired him at an early age. Reilly was able to explore the deep faith and religiosity … Read more
The wheels of scientific progress are turning inexorably, it seems. In the past few years, medical researchers stunned the world with groundbreaking advances in our understanding of the human body and how to treat diseases that threaten it. Scottish scientists announced in 1997 that they had successfully engineered Dolly, a cloned sheep, using an adult … Read more
To ask what place the doctrine of the real presence in the Eucharist has in the Western tradition is first to ask for some distinctions, and secondly, to send us off on a hunt. In one sense, there is scarcely any other tenet of Catholicism that can be said to be closer to the center … Read more
There is a famous story, repeated in every Boy Scout Handbook since the first edition published in 1910, about the origin of the Boy Scouts of America. Reportedly, an American businessman named William Boyce was lost on a rainy London street and asked a boy to give him directions. After the boy led Boyce to … Read more
Deal W. Hudson 1998, a rather lean year, has nonetheless provided some clear winners among books, films, and recordings. Kay Gibbon’s sixth novel, On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon (Putnam), confirms what many have suspected, that this North Carolinian would one day emerge as a great American writer. The female narrator tells an unforgettable … Read more
James P. McFadden (1930-1998) The world lost and Heaven gained a great soul when Jim McFadden died October 17, after a protracted struggle with cancer. Beneath the grit and grumble, James Patrick McFadden was as tender a man as I have ever known. After his Savior and his family, the most conspicuous objects of his … Read more
Catholics may be the most maddening electoral group in American politics, the demographic block that drives pollsters, pundits, and politicians of all stripes to distraction. Lately, Catholics—at 50 million strong and growing—have emerged as the Holy Grail of coalition politics, and they have the distinction of clustering in states rich in electoral votes, like Florida, … Read more
On April 20, 1998, a six person jury in Chicago found Joseph Scheidler, founder of the Pro-Life Action League, and two other defendants guilty on twenty-one counts of extortion under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). They are liable for treble damages totaling more than $240,000, to be paid to the various abortion … Read more
Introduction Criticized recently for its flagging moral leadership, the Republican Party now oddly finds itself in the majority, but unable to marshal that majority behind significant change in governmental policy. But what, really, is lacking? Do the Republicans lack the ability to handle the practical side of politics or are they more in need of … Read more
John Engler governor of Michigan It is naive (and contrary to Christian teaching) to believe that a political party without power is somehow more pure than a political party with power. Are not both comprised of men and women who are lower than the angels? After beginning my political career in the Michigan House of … Read more
Steve Forbes 1996 presidential candidate, chairman and CEO of Forbes Inc A great political party wants as large a following as possible. But to attract such a following a great party must have a moral compass and deeply held core principles. Its leaders must know where they want to lead the country, offer a convincing … Read more
Newt Gingrich Speaker of the House of Representatives Is a “Big Tent” sensibility compatible with the concept of a political party built on principle? The answer is a strong “yes.” The Republican Party, from its birth, has been a party based upon moral principle. In fact, it was founded on two fundamental issues—free land and … Read more
Henry Hyde represents Illinois in the House of Representatives In politics, you win by addition, and we need every Republican vote we can muster to maintain our majority in the House and Senate. If we lose our majority, it will be the death knell of pro-life legislation for as long as Democrats are in power. … Read more
Ralph Reed former president of the Christian Coalition, a political consultant The pro-life stance has made the GOP a majority party; to downplay that stance would be suicide. Anyone who thinks that the Republican Party should back away from the fundamental civil right—the right to life—is making a serious mistake. Republicans were virtually the permanent … Read more
Rick Santorum represents Pennsylvania in the Senate The Republican Party must stand on principle and that principle must be a commitment to the legal protection of all human life, from conception to natural death. The demand for a big tent—whereby this principle is attenuated to accommodate those who support abortion rights—is an attempt, to paraphrase … Read more
Ann Stone president of Republicans for Choice The resolution, “The ‘Big Tent’ strategy undermines the principles of the Republican Party,” could only have been suggested by someone who hasn’t been a Republican very long, or who doesn’t understand the core philosophy of our Great Party. Lee Atwater first suggested the big tent strategy to explain … Read more
Pete Wilson governor of California Republicans have always been united in common purpose to cure society’s ills, including abortion. Those who are pro-choice, who insist that government has no business in our bedrooms, and those who are pro-life, who insist upon the sanctity of human life and the rights of unborn children, nevertheless agree on … Read more