Catholic Living

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May 22, 2013

The Ultimate Ballfield

by Anthony Esolen

Major League Baseball has retired the number 42, in honor of Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color line and opened up that institution to all Americans. Justly has the league set aside the anniversary of this event as…

May 16, 2013

Remembering Fritz Wilhelmsen

by Regis Martin

I first met Fritz Wilhelmsen (1923-1996) in the summer of 1970, falling at once under the spell of his magic. Such a long time ago it all was, too. Yet I remember it all as if it were but yesterday. …

May 13, 2013

What Jesus Really Said About Sins of the Flesh

by Anthony Esolen

I have often heard it said that our Lord did not care overmuch about sins of the flesh; for He was relentless in his attacks upon hypocrisy, pride, and avarice, but was so mild towards adulterers and fornicators that we…

May 7, 2013

Catholic Fears of the Dreaded Religious Calling

The other day I walked into our bathroom to encounter a small stack of towels, folded on the floor—the same stack my wife had earlier asked our eighth grade son to put away. She hadn’t told him to put the…

May 6, 2013

Cause for Mirth: The Return of Abbey Brewing to the United States

by R. Jared Staudt

Beer is another one of those testimonies to how the Catholic Church built European civilization. It is true that brewing was widely practiced in the ancient world, but the process was very primitive, even as simple as soaking a loaf…

April 29, 2013

Is Chant Like Folk Music?

by Jeffrey Tucker

Somehow we have this impression that Gregorian chant is part of a high Church ethos. It’s for conservatives and traditionalists who favor their liturgy buttoned up, obedient, and strict. On the other hand, this line of thinking goes, people who…

April 22, 2013

Episcopal Attacks on Orthodox Catholic Blogs

by Dr. William Oddie

Not for the first time in his own indispensable blog, Protect the Pope, Deacon Nick has drawn our attention to another attack on Catholic blogs, coming from a familiar prelatical source. In a homily given during the Diocese of Westminster’s…

April 15, 2013

The Cost Of Being Catholic

by Christopher Manion

Nowadays, “charity” conjures up various images, some of which are quite distant from everyday life. Consider the “nonprofit sector”—or government welfare programs. Others images are more immediate—soup kitchens, or Salvation Army kettles. But charity—caritas—is actually a supernatural virtue. As Saint…

March 29, 2013

Good Friday and Good Death: A Meditation on Michelangelo’s Crucifix

by Andrew Wilson Smith

As morbid as this may sound, one of the main functions of the Catholic Church is to teach us how to die. Death is the common lot of man—the great democratizing element in our lives. The only question that remains…

March 27, 2013

Easter Hope Amid the Horror of Death

by Regis Martin

As anyone with half-a-brain knows, success in the publishing world is measured by the number of books sold. What many do not know, of course, is that there are only two categories that perennially produce best sellers. Cookbooks and diet…

March 20, 2013

What to Hope For in a New Pope

by Regis Martin

Imagine members of the lay faithful being invited to instruct the cardinals who come to Rome to select a new pope. They would be asked precisely whom they would choose as successor to St. Peter. Of course the cardinals are…

March 11, 2013

Catholic Youth are Indebted to John Paul II and Benedict XVI

by John Paul Shimek

Less than one month ago, Facebook posts and Twitter tweets announced momentous news: “Annuntio vobis tristitiam magnam,” one said. “Sede Vacante,” read another. A million similar messages appeared across the internet and the new social media. The ancient See of St….

February 28, 2013

Running From Hell: Thoughts on Love and Sin

by Pete Jermann

Running from hell is a lousy way to approach God. This seemed to be the consensus of many post-Vatican II Catholics who saw the pre-Vatican II era as a generation beholden to the fear of sin and subject to rules…

February 19, 2013

Multitudes Before the Throne: Hope for a Pilgrim Church

… I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…. (Rev. 7:9) As a candidate who will enter the…

February 14, 2013

His Resolute Will Should Inspire Us

by Vaughn Kohler

Pope Benedict XVI has designated 2013 the Year of Faith and this is, no doubt, because we need it. Our faith’s supreme object is, of course, Jesus Christ, and the constant contemplation of his glory will not only sustain our…

February 12, 2013

The Radical Return to Ratzinger

by Sean Fitzpatrick

To many, Pope Benedict XVI is a radical: an old man clothed in capes, incurably fixed on forgotten principles of a forgotten world—principles that no longer apply to the “real world.” To others, Pope Benedict XVI is radical: a wise…

February 11, 2013

The Reason Benedict Resigned

by William Fahey

The Catholic world is largely shocked by the publication of Pope Benedict XVI’s letter of resignation this morning. The secular world assumes the worst—no, it desires the worst, and by insinuation worms doubts into the minds of even the faithful….

February 5, 2013

Tyranny of the Extroverts, In Church and Out

by Howard Kainz

Jung’s theory of extroversion/introversion in his book, Psychological Types, may be the one holdover from the era of “analytic psychology” and classical psychoanalysis which has actually had a practical effect on contemporary psychology and culture. I think especially of the…

February 4, 2013

The Importance of Stan Musial’s Funeral Mass

by Donald DeMarco

Stan Musial passed away on January 19, 2013 at 92 years of age. His wife of nearly 72 years died the previous year. Thousands of friends filed through the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis during the six-hour public visitation. The…

January 17, 2013

Why Marriage Matters

by Regis Martin

It was, not so very long ago, widely regarded in this country as morally wrong and, not infrequently, socially ruinous, for a man to walk out on his wife and children. In 1961, for example, Nelson Rockefeller, who was then…

January 3, 2013

Why “Celebrate” Christmas—and the Epiphany?

by Bruce Frohnen

Did you know that Christmas celebrations were banned in Scotland until 1958? I certainly didn’t, not until my son started working on his sixth grade “Christmas around the World” report. I haven’t looked up what the English did in this…

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