Is Pentecost the Birthday of the Church?
The problem with saying Pentecost is the birthday of the Church is that it is neither traditional nor is it theologically complete.
The Defense Department’s Ongoing War Against the Unborn
The Department of Defense’s embrace of abortion points back to the unadulterated abortion advocacy of the Commander-in-Chief.
Did the Resurrected Christ Appear to His Blessed Mother?
Tradition has insisted that the mother of Jesus had her own private experience of her Resurrected Son.
Do Some Clergy Represent an Obstacle to the Eucharistic Revival?
A diocesan publication, in the context of the Eucharistic Revival, decides to give space to a priest’s pique about some of the faithful and their devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.
The Fallibility of Popes, According to St. Paul and St. Gregory
Infallibility is not to be generalized to all the pope’s statements, just as it must not be confused with impeccability. The pope is human and can sin like all of us. He can also be mistaken about things.
A Letter to Father Pavone
Your case has provoked much commentary from many points of view. I can only say I sympathize with you.
The Best Congress Money Can Buy
The Democrats’ much-vaunted escaping of the Red Wave had much to do with pouring money into advertising. Why don’t we hear more about that?
Cautious Incoherence
I was giving a talk for adult education in the faith at a parish not my own, and the subject of cooperation in abortion was discussed. In the small group session, a young lady said to me that she was upset to feel criticized because she had accompanied a friend to an abortion clinic. “I … Read more
The Pope and EWTN
Like most of you, I was surprised when I learned that the Holy Father was apparently disparaging EWTN in his private conversation with the Jesuit community in Slovakia. My reaction to the news, which was dropped by Father Spadaro, the editor of La Civiltà Cattolica, took several stages of deduction. First of all, I was … Read more
Jesus is God, Forever and Ever
Every day since Ash Wednesday I have thought a little about a change in the liturgy of the ordinary form of the Roman Mass that has been described as “minor.” This change was in what is called the doxology of the collect prayers in the Missal. Instead of saying, “Through Jesus Christ Our Lord in … Read more
When Violence Shapes Public Policy
It seems like rioting (or the threat thereof) has become a form of participatory democracy. Nothing reveals the disintegration of authority and the common good so much in our society as the more and more frequent resort to violence. That this is particularly connected to police and the use of force, undue or otherwise, is … Read more
Do Humans Dream of Electric Empathy?
Philip Dick wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in 1968, but the novel is set in January 2021. The movie Blade Runner was based on some of the concepts in the novel, but the book’s plot is different and its themes more complex. One of the key themes of the novel is the human … Read more
A New Resistance Is Rising
A friend of mine, an early activist in the Christian Democrat party in El Salvador, told me a story that I have been thinking about lately. Before I had ever gone to that country as a missionary, the parish school building served as a polling place. When they were setting up for an election, my … Read more
Welcome to Weimar America
Arthur Koestler is most famous for his Darkness at Noon, a book written in 1939 whose subject was the Stalin show trials of the thirties, when the Dictatorship of the Proletariat was exposed as the tyranny of a very bad man. Koestler wrote many other books, however, and one that I just read, Arrow in … Read more
We Don’t Honor Secession. We Honor Reconciliation
In Bruce Catton’s famous book A Stillness at Appomattox, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1954, the historian recounts a meeting held by Abraham Lincoln with his two generals, Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, just before the inevitable surrender of the Confederacy. “The principal order of business,” Catton … Read more
A Crisis of Faith Cannot Be Met by Liturgical Protocols
The unprecedented message of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI regarding the crisis of the clergy contained a surprising illumination that is so incisive it will probably be ignored for years: All problems connected to Holy Orders are related in some way to the Eucharist. Benedict wrote: Our handling of the Eucharist can only arouse concern… What … Read more
Sense and Nonsense: The Latest Defense of Amoris Laetitia
A brave theology professor at my diocesan seminary, Rev. Gerald J. Bednar, has taken upon himself to defend the ambiguity that exists in Amoris Laetitia against the Dubia famously presented by “dissenters” (i.e. the four cardinals). He wrote an article that appeared in Emmanuel Magazine published by the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. A shortened … Read more