A Radical Proposal for the USCCB’s Eucharistic Revival
Four simple changes to how we receive Communion will do far more to create a Eucharistic revival than any multi-million dollar program.
Vatican II at 60: Stop the Cheerleading
With all due respect to the Second Vatican Council, it does not meet the demands of a secular world. For that we need a virile, unequivocal, and full-throated Catholicism.
WARNING: The Music at Mass May Be Harmful to Your Soul
When Catholics in a typical parish are served lounge music instead of sacred music, their souls suffer a kind of dry rot. They experience not the “fear and trembling” of Calvary but only the wispy breezes of the musical theater.
In Praise of the (Former) Society of Jesus
The Jesuits used to be God’s Marines. They have become God’s embarrassment.
The Navel-Gazing of Synodal “Listening”
The Church’s divine mission is to give humanity a contemplative gaze into the Most Holy Trinity, not to embrace the secular causes du jour or sterile programs of self-realization.
The Ecstasy and Terror of Holy Thursday
On this Holy Thursday night there can be no peace. For a treachery of cosmic magnitude has been perpetrated. The Son of Man has been betrayed with a kiss. Where there is sin, peace becomes a stranger.
Three Cheers for Smokers
The continued stigmatization of cigarette smokers signals the Leftist lunacy of passionate focus upon trivialities while entirely oblivious to matters of titanic moral consequence.
Christ the King: An Embarrassing Feast for a “Reimagined Church”
Slight squeamishness settles about the minds of a certain kind of Catholic this Sunday. “Reimagined Catholics,” that is: Catholics more at home with America magazine and the National Catholic Reporter than The Baltimore Catechism and the unredacted Lives of the Saints. You know, those Catholics quite comfortable with Mr. Biden warmly received at our altar … Read more
Down the Rabbit Hole of Synodality
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that is all.” (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland) … Read more
9/11/01: Hell in Manhattan
(Note: This previously unpublished article was written on September 14, 2001, from the office of Fr. John A. Perricone at St. Agnes Rectory in Manhattan, some two miles away from Ground Zero. Much of the horror of that day has faded. Even more so, its urgent lessons. Much of America seems to have moved on … Read more
Post Traditionis Custodes: Musings on a Setback, Not a Defeat
Now that the dust has settled from Traditonis Custodes (somewhat), it might be a good time to recall Eliot’s Christianity and Culture, where, he perceptively remarked, “Victories are never permanent, and neither are defeats.” Though an unreconstructed Anglican, he possessed a sensus Catholicus, which shone through in sentences like that. It is an insight we should … Read more
The Holy Spirit Makes Men of Steel
Upon entering St. Peter’s Basilica, facing the visitor, like some sunburst, is the Great Altar. It is spaced majestically beneath Bernini’s massive baldachin, held up by four thick, twisted columns, identical to the ones in Solomon’s Temple—clearly a sign that the typological figures of the Old Testament had come to fulfillment in the immolation of … Read more
The Tightening Noose of Diversity Ideology
Attention to one’s duties to state in life prevents normal Catholics from keeping track of the latest depredations of cancel culture. That is as it should be. Staring at the societal collapse only leaves one’s soul depleted, while engendering a sterile rage. Reliable sources such as this one should be sufficient in fulfilling one’s obligation … Read more
Resisting a Counterfeit Easter
To celebrate Easter properly, we should probably recall Luca Signorelli’s 1499 masterpiece The Sermon and Deeds of the Anti-Christ. It now hangs in the Chapel of San Brizio in Orvieto. Upon first glance, it appears that Christ stands in the foreground. Then the observer realizes that it is not Christ at all. It is an … Read more
North Dakota Lawmakers Declare War on the Church
Chills ran down the spines of Catholics on January 12 when North Dakota lawmakers announced their intention to amend the state’s Century Code relating to mandatory reporting. Under the current law, “a member of the clergy…is not required to report [knowledge or suspicion of child abuse] if the knowledge or suspicion is derived from information … Read more
Occupy Harvard
You probably think North Korea is thousands of miles away. Actually, it is as close as your nearest university. By and large most of our universities and colleges have become little North Koreas—sealed enclaves of repressive ideology, stifled speech, and rigid thought control. Students enthuse to this jailed status through daily dosages of Huxleyan soma … Read more
Black Power!
I know what you’re thinking. It’s not that at all. Black Power is, of course, priests in their cassocks. Can there be any greater power than that? They present the great drama of the Holy Gospel. A priest merely in a black suit is prosaic; in the cassock, he is poetry. Perhaps this is why … Read more
Radical Chic Redux
Only the gifted pen of a Tom Wolfe could have minted the generation-defining sobriquet, radical chic. It first appeared in a long monograph in New York magazine in 1970, where the author wrote a withering piece describing a fashionable cocktail party at the West Side apartment of Leonard Bernstein. The impresario had invited the glitterati … Read more
Thank God, Governor Cuomo
Upon hearing the puerile remarks of Governor Andrew Cuomo last week, Chesterton came to mind. The lapsed Catholic governor is usually prone to inanity and offense, but this reached new heights: “We have turned the corner on the Coronavirus plague. It was not faith or prayers that did it. Only hard work and science.” To … Read more
Don’t Look Away
One might find it surprising, but it is impossible to discover an image of the crucifix existing before the sixth century. Even then, the only one that can be found is carved on the massive bronze doors of the cathedral in Ravenna. It is a mere panel among a number of other panels. Tucked away … Read more