Men have been shut out of the modesty conversation for decades, even in Catholic circles. Nothing will change until they lead the fight against immodesty with courage, prudence, and compassion for the wounds underneath it.
The secular world is scrambling to explain the shocking surge in pornography, violence, and mental illness that the Catholic world has long anticipated.
Pornography soaks the minds of those who consume it in unrealities that, in turn, ruin lives in reality. AI, in all its uses, may turn out to be even worse.
The Sexual Revolution has taken exponentially more American lives and wounded more Americans than Islamism.
With all the monstrous challenges facing parents today, screen time is the Hydra, and once it comes into being, it can’t easily be slayed.
Social media use is associated with online pornography addiction—a well-documented factor in the destabilization of marriage and family.
Unlike Dennis Prager’s “silo approach” to sin, the Christian view of sin includes a wholesome, integrated view of the human person.
What if Catholics invested the kind of political and spiritual energy in combatting pornography as they have in abortion? What if there was an annual march on Washington demanding that politicians take action to limit, if not eradicate, pornography from our public landscape? What if our dioceses distributed car magnets featuring hotlines for pornography addiction? … Read more
There was an underbelly ripple when the news broke that Victoria’s Secret had called off its Christmas season “fashion show,” a prime-time network TV event featuring provocative displays of risqué lingerie. Cancel culture analysts have conjectured at an awareness of the brand’s lack of “body diversity” together with a growing sensitivity to the problem of … Read more
The Adam Smith Institute bills itself as a non-profit that “work[s] to promote free market, neoliberal ideas through research, publishing, media outreach, and education.” Fr. James Martin, SJ, bills himself as a Catholic priest. The Adam Smith Institute, or one of its chapters, recently issued a call to action, because a movement was mounting to … Read more
Jennifer Lopez calls her new film Hustlers an “empowering, feminist story.” The inference is that the strippers—the film’s protagonists—use the sexualization of their bodies to gain control of their male clients. This has become a common message for women. The entertainment industry no longer portrays women as straightforward sexual objects. Now, leading ladies accentuate their … Read more
Throughout April, universities across the nation held events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. These initiatives are intended to shed light on an incredibly troubling issue and encourage students to look out for each other. Such events are clearly well-intentioned efforts to address a grave societal ill; however, the approach fostered by such events is not … Read more
The film series Brain, Heart, World has just been released. It consists of three episodes each about 30 minutes long. Each episode explores a different realm in which pornography causes harm: the individual, human relationships, and society as a whole. There are some depressing facts to be learned from Brain, Heart, World. For a start, … Read more
Father James G. Martin, S.J., is either a cruel or a foolish man. It does not seem to be the first. But if it is not that, it must be the second, because that alone can explain how a Catholic priest can live in the midst of massive and unprecedented family breakdown, and the chaos, … Read more
Every year, pornography tangles up millions of people in its sticky spider webs. It rolls them up like hapless flies, and sucks out their brains until they are pretty much the walking dead. Christians are not exempt. And we are finally starting to admit it and talk about it. But there is still something missing … Read more
One need not recount again the abominable details of Brock Turner’s “20 minutes of action,” or those of his trial and recent conviction on three counts of sexual assault. Enough ink has been spilled in outrage (rightfully so) over his woefully short prison sentence, and the support for his victim’s courageous statement before the court … Read more
If you haven’t yet read The Divine Comedy, the Year of Mercy is the time to do it. Named by Pope Francis as one of his favorite books, this narrative poem by the fourteenth-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri is widely considered to be the most preeminent work of Italian literature, as well as one of the greatest poems ever written. … Read more
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of … Read more
Faith should penetrate all areas of life—not just the religious, but also the social, the economic, and even the political. Notwithstanding the confused claims of today’s radical secularists, we are not constitutionally required to set our faith aside when entering the world of politics. Separation of Church and state does not mean separation of Church … Read more
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus used to call it “the parish paper,” a gentle barb at the pretensions of the self-described “paper of record,” but also, I think, a subtle pastoral hand extended to those who think they get all the advice they need when they look in the mirror. Yes, I’m talking about the New … Read more
