The Curé Few Want
There is a major identity crisis today in the priesthood. It is a rupture, or at the very least an attempt to disconnect from the burden of its deep-rooted identity as one who offers sacrifice.
The Starved Man Who Changed the World
Thirty-one years ago today, Venerable Aloysius Schwartz, one of the greatest forces for good for the humiliated, abandoned, and rejected in the history of the world, died like a poor man.
The Pope and Synod: Hangmen of the Great Commission
I will not follow this new synodal listening blueprint, and I will not oblige Pope Francis’ reproach of Catholic proselytization. I will listen to God. And I will hold fast to Christ’s words of the Great Commission.
America’s Grave Sensus Fidei-less Opinions
One thing is now clear: numberless faithful Catholics believe what Cardinal Müller does: the Synod on Synodality has been commandeered to subvert and distort the moral doctrine of the Church.
Bishop Thomas Daly: “We Are Playing Make-Believe with Students’ Biological Sexes”
Bishop Thomas Daly recently spoke out against the trend of even Catholic schools accepting the lies of the transgender movement.
The Priest in the Valley of Lazaruses
For two years a single American priest has worked seventeen-hour days to spiritually and mentally prepare teenage girls for what might await them in some of the most dangerous towns in the world.
The Priest Who Resisted Homosexuality in the Priesthood and Died for It
Msgr. Thomas Wells was killed 22 years ago today, the result of his efforts to root out active homosexuality in the clergy.
In the Face of Evil, Our Priests Need to Be Martyrs
Our church desperately needs priests willing to be victims and martyrs – willing to give up all to protect their sheep.
The Widow on the Porch
Has the Bride of Christ become like an old widow, who, caught within her inertness and fixed habits, periodically looks out into the flock—and rails against it?
The Victim Who Vanished
A short time ago, in the Maryland countryside, a priest the humble folk say bears a resemblance to Maximilian Kolbe turned on the ignition of his old silver pick-up and eased out of the parking lot of his St. Michael’s parish. He shifted into second gear and passed by a group of swollen-eyed parishioners standing … Read more
A Father’s Day Story
The fresh-faced American priest stood there like Ichabod Crane: startled and fence-post skinny inside a wind-whipped cassock, his sharp, dominant nose seemingly pointing out to the ruination before him. Squatters with blank stares picked through hills of garbage, beggars huddled in cardboard boxes, and lunatics muttered into the long-traveling winds coming from the plains of … Read more
The Last Dogfight For Our Children?
After decades of playing its own executioner, perhaps it has come to this for the generally infertile American Catholic education system: it will be only the finger of God working through heroes that will come to the rescue of its lost children. As we enter “Celebrate Catholic Schools Week,” it would be good to find … Read more
Fr. Martin’s Neighborhood
This past weekend, my 11-year-old daughter and I went to see A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood at the local theater. The movie, based on Mr. Rogers’s interaction and friendship with a hardscrabble magazine reporter, is a moving portrayal of the manner in which one’s tender love and care is able to transform a suffering … Read more
Comfort Is Killing the Church
I saw his collar. It was a sun-splashed late morning and parking spaces were hard to come by for the lunch hour crowd at the Westfield Annapolis Mall in Maryland. For some reason, I squinted into my rearview mirror and saw that the driver trailing was a Catholic priest. Five minutes later, he was five … Read more
Uncle Tommy—Happy Martyr, and the Priest We Need
It’s coming up on 20 years since my uncle, Msgr. Thomas Wells, was murdered in his Maryland rectory during a somber late summer night. Deputy state attorney Kay Winfree called the scene spine-chilling: as gruesome as anything she’d ever encountered. His body was marked by deep stab wounds around his head and neck, accompanied by … Read more