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May 24, 2013

Islam and the Outer Limits of Ecumenism

by Howard Kainz

The 1964 Vatican II Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis redintegratio, was quite clear: The newly launched ecumenical movement had as its sole goal, the reunification of Christians. The appeals for reunification would be directed to baptized Christians, “those who invoke the…

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May 22, 2013

Assessing Vatican II: A Response to My Critics

by Fr. Regis Scanlon, O.F.M. Cap

It’s ironic to me that my recent article, “Fifty Years Later—Vatican II’s Unfinished Business,” has provoked anger among many traditionalists, because for most of my priesthood I have angered liberals who consider me an arch traditionalist. Nevertheless I want to…

May 21, 2013

Evangelizing the Evangelicals

In his new book, George Weigel explicates the historical development of Evangelical Catholicism, a reform begun by Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), developed by the renewals of the early twentieth-century, formalized by Vatican II, and authoritatively interpreted by John Paul II…

May 15, 2013

Abbé Edgeworth: King Louis’ Irish Confessor

by Rev. George W. Rutler

Among the singularities of the French monarchy was the tradition of having Scottish bodyguards. Scottish history has not been riddled with pacifism, and the Scots along with the fiery Castilians, were used as mercenaries as early as Charlemagne. An “Auld…

May 10, 2013

Fifty Years Later–Vatican II’s Unfinished Business

by Fr. Regis Scanlon, O.F.M. Cap

Fifty years after the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the Church in the United States is in the throes of a struggle. Loyal Catholics are showing renewed vigor and vitality, and are helping the Church to move forward in…

May 9, 2013

What the Lord’s Ascension Means

by Regis Martin

Of all the conundrums that have come to vex and confound us, there are three that continue uniquely to rivet the attention. Each provides a key to the great and enduring realities of the Christian life. What can we know…

May 8, 2013

The “Balancing Act” of Karl Rahner and Luise Rinser

by Howard Kainz

The Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner (1904-1984) was known as a “progressive” and, during the papacy of Pius XII, was required to submit his writings for approval before publication, but in 1962 was reinstated and appointed as one of the periti…

May 6, 2013

Pope & Press: The Honeymoon Will End

by Dr. William Oddie

The current headline over Carl Olson’s Catholic World Report blog is “When will the media turn on Pope Francis?” Others are asking the same question too. The new Pope’s friendly and casual manner has charmed a lot of the liberals…

May 3, 2013

But Whom May We Evangelize?

by Rev. James V. Schall, S.J.

People are curious. They like to know “what’s new.” Most people, whatever their background, do not, however, like to be proselytized, to be made unsettled in their normal beliefs and practices by some sharp stranger wanting to convert them to…

April 29, 2013

Feminists Attack But the Meek Will Conquer

by Sean Fitzpatrick

Belgian Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard was participating in a debate on blasphemy at the Free University of Brussels on April 23rd when he became the target of a blasphemy. Four topless women emerged from the attendees and mobbed the prelate, dousing…

April 24, 2013

The Gospel According to Garry

by John F. Quinn

For more than a decade, Garry Wills has been devoting much of his energy to Catholic matters. In Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit (2000), he explained that the papacy was never intended by Jesus and that most popes have had…

April 23, 2013

Pope Francis and the Gospel of Life

by Arland K. Nichols

Though the world barely knows Pope Francis, it has rushed to judge him. As Caitlin Bootsma has lamented, “Catholics, of all stripes, immediately sought to measure Pope Francis against their own goals for the papacy.” Rather than measuring him according to…

April 22, 2013

Pope Francis: A Jonah for Our Times?

by Fr. Regis Scanlon, O.F.M. Cap

The world was transfixed in early 2013 as three meteors broke through the deceptive calm of outer space. Thanks to the media, for a few weeks, people were confronted with the remote, but unsettling, possibility that the ultimate horror might…

April 19, 2013

Pope Francis: Reform in the Footsteps of St. Pius V

by R. Jared Staudt

Unknowingly, my family had a sneak preview of the results of the recent Conclave. During the week prior, my one year old son, Austin, kept going up to our bookshelf and pulling off a particular book, no matter where it…

April 18, 2013

From Works of Mercy to Voter Fraud

by George Neumayr

Burying the dead is a work of mercy. So, too, is voting for them, according to Sister Marguerite Kloos. Or at least that’s what she thought last year until Ohio investigators nabbed her for an act of voter fraud. This…

April 16, 2013

Veritatis Splendor: The Encyclical that Mattered

by Samuel Gregg

There are papal encyclicals, and then there are papal encyclicals. Some escape public attention almost from the moment they’re promulgated. Others continue reverberating inside the Church decades after they appear. But there’s also a third type of encyclical: those which…

April 15, 2013

Scandal at St. John’s University: Corruption, Apostasy, and Death

by Anne Hendershott

Barraged by headlines like the New York Post’s “St. John’s Dean of Mean, Cecilia Chang, Commits Suicide,” most New Yorkers remain bewildered by the facts surrounding a sordid story of money, power and status seeking at St. John’s University. Last…

April 11, 2013

Our First Right: Religious Liberty

by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

Editor’s note: The following remarks by Archbishop Charles Chaput were submitted to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and published March 25, 2013 on Public Discourse. My remarks today are purely my own. But they’re shaped by twenty-five years…

April 9, 2013

Despite Appearances, “Reform” Has Not Come

by Regis Martin

How blessedly instructive it has been, following the installation of the first pope from the Americas, Pope Francis, to witness the world’s sheer unaffected delight in this man. His warmth and simplicity have endeared him everywhere. Indeed, he has disarmed…

April 5, 2013

How Environmentalism Harms the Poor

by Rev. James V. Schall, S.J.

The book of Genesis was written in part to counteract a theory later known as Manicheanism. It held that a god of good created spirit and a god of evil created matter. In this view, the more spiritual we are,…

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