It is a truth not universally acknowledged that 35 years after the Second Vatican Council the laity has no idea what to do with itself. It was not supposed to be this way. As early as 1952, Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote that “the hour of the laity is sounding in the Church.” The Council … Read more
The American century is ending on a bad note. In the last two presidential elections, we knew exactly what we were doing: electing a whiz kid at whose center there was (and is) a moral black hole. Sixty percent of the voters who elected him said that he was not honest. What mattered was competence, … Read more
You are in a large church basement on the upper east side of Manhattan. Like all church basements, it freelances as a basketball court, a dining hall, a wailing room for various twelve-step programs. This morning, it’s marriage preparation. Seventy-five couples who plan to marry in the Catholic Church are here for a day of … Read more
In October, Pope John Paul II delivered a message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences regarding the theory of evolution. The document touched on a number of important issues—scriptural, epistemological, and scientific— which are of supreme importance to Catholics. Inevitably, it was the least newsworthy item in the pope’s message—that the Church has no problem … Read more
Each month, to test our courage, my wife Lisa and I stand before an auditorium full of couples about to marry in the Catholic Church and explain to them the Church’s teachings about sexuality. The crowd is generally not happy to be there. Many are not Catholic and few, needless to say, want to hear … Read more
Science is mankind’s great success story since the Renaissance. Only the most obdurate Luddite can regret the computer chip, the Hubble telescope, and the heart bypass. But these material triumphs have come at a philosophical cost. The scientific method has been so successful in its own sphere that many intelligent people think it the only … Read more
In the series of interviews with Italian journalist Vittorio Messori which appeared as The Ratzinger Report, Cardinal Ratzinger was asked about Marian apparations. He confirmed that reports of Mary’s appearances were reaching the Vatican from around the globe and in guarded language suggesting that these phenomena are a “sign of the times.” Ratzinger also discussed … Read more
Scripture, our Evangelical friends tell us, is the inerrant Word of God. Quite right, the Catholic replies; but how do you know this to be true? It’s not an easy question for Protestants, because, having jettisoned tradition and the Church, they have no objective authority for the claims they make for Scripture. There is no … Read more
The 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is an occasion for taking stock — and not just for those whom general opinion deems remote accessories to the crime. As Solzhenitsyn discovered in the Gulag, the true divide of good and evil runs not between guard and prisoner, between tormentor and victim, but rather through … Read more
The Upper East Side of Manhattan is an unlikely spot for any populist phenomenon, especially within the Church. Yet, for the last 12 years, a dedicated group of lay persons has been quietly bringing off a minor revolution in the way the Catholic catechism is taught to children. This small revolution, which is bound to … Read more
The United Nations declared 1994 to be the Year of the Family, and that brings to mind a quip by Cardinal Newman when an avowed atheist was elected to Parliament. Asked if it would not be a scandal for such a person to take the oath of office, thereby evoking the name of God, Newman … Read more
Although I now blush to acknowledge it, one  afternoon when I was a junior in college I placed a pomegranate before the picture of a well-known Eastern mystic. This happened in a Transcendental Meditation Center which had set up shop near campus. Once the fruit was in place, my instructor turned to me and began … Read more
Since the time of Newton, the discoveries of science have been used as a stick with which to beat on religious faith. Newton, Darwin, and others described a mechanistic universe which seemed to have no need of a Creator. The response of theologians was a reminder that science is the study of nature; it can … Read more
Has it been duly noted that Darwin’s theory of evolution is dying? Not at the hands of fundamentalists; it is being killed off by the scientific community itself. The slow acknowledgement that the theory has died may prove to be an intellectual watershed more important than the ongoing demolition of Marx and Freud. No book … Read more