Under this administration and this Congress — which includes the Republican-controlled House of Representatives led by Speaker John Boehner — the right of Catholics to freely exercise their religion is treated with less deference than the presumed right of stockyard owners to fill the skies with effluvia. I mean this literally. When Congress wants … Read more
Archbishop Chaput’s address to the first session of “The 15th symposium for the Canon Law Association of Slovakia” — wow, that’s quite a mouthful — was delivered over a week ago. Yet it has not been making quite as robust a showing on The Catholic IntraWebs as I would have expected after giving it the once-over. The … Read more
How much stupidity and how many lies can you stuff into a single press release? Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, has raised the bar in both categories with the following statement from today. I have bolded both the stupidity and the lies and added a few comments in [CAPS]. Do you think O’Brien … Read more
How much stupidity and how many lies can you stuff into a single press release? Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, has raised the bar in both categories with the following statement from today. I have bolded both the stupidity and the lies and added a few comments in [CAPS]. Do you think O’Brien … Read more
American Catholics can sometimes bring a particularly democratic flavor to our faith; we historically don’t like being told what to do, and we clearly have no problem telling our bishops just what we think of them. But even this little democratic Catholic was stunned by the reaction that French bishop Christian Nourrichard of Evreux received … Read more
American Catholics have endured internal polarization for many years, but lately the split has become more visible, vocal, and vitriolic. For this we largely have Barack Obama to thank. Â Before Obama’s admirers start screaming — itself a sign of the polarization — I hasten to say I don’t particularly blame the president. Obama has … Read more
Communism was never popular in America, and no American group was more fervently anti-Communist than the Catholics. The American bishops, like the Vatican, had condemned Marxism before 1900 for its atheism, its violation of natural law principles, and its theory of inevitable class conflict. They condemned the Russian Revolution of 1917 that brought Lenin and … Read more
Like many American Catholics who weren’t lucky enough to score tickets to a Papal Mass, I have been watching this week’s events unfold on my television screen. Viewing from my living room, with a gang of kids gathered around me on the couches, reminds me of the springtime three years ago when we watched the … Read more