The Manosphere Doesn’t Solve the Masculinity Crisis
The crisis of masculinity is not that men have ceased to do strenuous things. Rather, the crisis is the fact that men have been told there is nothing worth doing strenuous things for.
Men: Do You Want to Be Part of the Church Impotent or the Church Militant?
What we need is a men’s group for men who don’t like men’s groups.
Why Your Catholic Men’s Group Should Eventually Fold
A men’s group for formation and friendship seems to try to combine two things that have traditionally been kept separate. They seem to reflect the modern tendency to do synthetically what ought to be done naturally.
Why Your Catholic Men’s Group Will Eventually Fold
Many of the men who are in most need of Catholic male fellowship are in the worst position to make it happen: mid-career, young and growing family, demands on time to balance everything…anything that isn’t work or family gets pushed to the back burner.
A Catholic Perspective on Feminism, Gender Roles, and Patriarchy
Our culture is horribly confused about the proper roles of men and women. From those who wish to eliminate sex differences to those who create more differences than God intended, we don’t know what it means to be a man or a woman.
Hilaire Belloc’s List of Eight Manly Activities
Hilaire Belloc described a handful of activities which modern industrial and urban life has all too often endangered or made extinct, but should be recovered by today’s Catholic men.
No Parish for Real Men
There’s a crisis of manhood in the American Church. You know it; I know it. But if our bishops are anything other than totally oblivious, they’re playing it cool. In July of 2017, I attended a USCCB convocation in Orlando, Florida. Its stated goal was finding new ways to spread the joy of the Gospel … Read more
One, Holy, Catholic, and Neuter
The Church today suffers from a deficiency in her identity, lacking awareness of both her Marian and Petrine dimensions. I borrow these concepts from Hans Urs von Balthasar to explore the feminine and masculine aspects of the Church. In some ways we have become a neuter Church, lacking both Mary’s feminine receptivity toward Christ and … Read more
Christianity’s Masculinity Crisis
It might seem odd to classify gender theory as a national security threat. After all, if a woman feels she was meant to be a man, there seems to be no reason why her personal desires should have any impact on national policy. But, as you’re no doubt aware, gender theorists want to make it … Read more
Modeling Manhood: From Homer to Paul
In Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, a Greek war hero faces imposing challenges in his long journey home. After decimating the armies of Troy, King Odysseus sets out for Ithaca only to find himself wrestling against more formidable foes. For ten years the whims of gods and the winds of fate hinder his journey, while … Read more
Navigating the Confused State Of Manhood
To be a girl today is to be the beneficiary of decades of conversation about the complexities of womanhood, its many forms and expressions. Boys, though, have been left behind. No commensurate movement has emerged to help them navigate toward a full expression of their gender. It’s no longer enough to “be a man”—we no … Read more
The World Has Little of Value to Teach the Church
I recently commented on the signs of the times, and noted that they tell us to pay more attention to eternity. The topic deserves further discussion. In the 1960s, it became common for Catholics to look to the world for guidance. This attitude inspired the widespread false belief that Saint John XXIII said the Second Vatican … Read more
Memory, Sex and the Making of the “New Man”
Editor’s note: The following paper was delivered at the “Into the Breach” men’s conference sponsored by the Diocese of Phoenix on Saturday, February 3, 2018 and is published with permission of the author. “Some ideas are so stupid that only an intellectual could believe them.” Those words are usually attributed to George Orwell. I’m not … Read more
Lady Day: A Counter-Protest Like No Other
The people who brought you the extra-large vaginas marching on Washington in January are at it again. They have deemed today, March 8th, as “A Day Without Women.” You can show your support for abortion, Planned Parenthood, same-sex marriage, and of all things—transgenderism, by … not showing up for work. (They wisely didn’t make female … Read more
Women Should Appreciate Masculine Virtues
In this column, I will do something a little bit unprecedented. I specifically wish to address my female readers, and to issue a challenge. Can we make a special resolution to be good to the men and boys in our lives? I know that this is often a big ask. Modern men can be exceedingly … Read more
Marian Femininity Before and After “I Do”
We have a crisis of womanhood in our culture. Everyone knows it. Few admit it. Generations ago, the secular-humanists designed a brave new woman who is shrill, selfish, arrogant, and bossy (oh no! the ‘b’ word!). With a clarifying view to Scripture, we can see in retrospect that we have all (myself included) become—at least … Read more
Bishop Olmsted Calls Men Into the Breach
A father’s prodigal love and approval fill the space carved into our being by the finger of our Creator. Boy or girl, man or woman, all, and no matter the age, thirst for it. Our household knows this well. After a period of infertility, physical deterioration, and loss, when we were told never to expect … Read more
Why Boarding Schools Are Good for Teenage Boys
Teenage boys will not be freed from the bog they are immured in by new-fangled modifications and medications, but by old-fashioned reason and remedies. Boys today suffer from despondency, lack of direction, and a masculine identity crisis, overwhelmed as they are by widespread feminization, relativism, pornography, and cultural collapse. The quandary is rooted in a … Read more
The Role of Beauty in the Formation of Men as Men
Once upon a time in the Western world, exposure to “the beautiful” was an important element in the development and formation of men. The ideal man was also an educated man, and an educated man knew something about, and appreciated, good art, good music, good literature, and good taste (and perhaps also good wine). The … Read more
The World Needs a New Don Bosco
It’s one of those gorgeous September afternoons when Minnesota seems like a slice of paradise, rather than a stage of Purgatory. I’m sitting on a park bench watching small boys (my own three, plus a few they just met on the playground) pretend to kill one another. It’s truly a beautiful sight. “I shall slay … Read more