Increasingly, we are living in an age in which moral principles have no objective standard, a time of global terrorism and violent Christian persecution. In the face of such grave challenges it is necessary to emphasize the increasing importance of the priesthood and the need to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior spiritual … Read more
The Vatican recently initiated a major reform of women’s religious in America. Particularly targeted was the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) which represents about 80 percent of the country’s 57,000 women religious. The reform comes in light of a hardened defiance against Catholic morality in areas of family life and human sexuality and is … Read more
Envy is one of the most potent causes of unhappiness. It is certainly the most joyless of the Seven Deadly Sins. It was envy of God that caused the fall of the angels and the devils come into existence. It was envy that brought on the fall of our first parents. The devil envied their happiness, … Read more
Since Vatican II, the Catholic Church has been turned upside down in the name of an ecumenical council whose true interpretation continues to be debated more than half a century after it closed. One point of contention is the Council’s teaching on religious liberty. In his 1864 encyclical Quanta Cura, Pope Pius IX labeled as … Read more
We live in a materialistic world where stress has become one of the greatest of illnesses. There is the constant pressure to consume more, to work harder, to live longer, to look better, to be selfish and greedy, to accept and succumb to promiscuous and immoral laws that encourage pornography, abortion, homosexuality and genetic manipulation. … Read more
On Sunday, Jan. 25, 1959, Pope John XXIII proclaimed that it was time to drag the church out of the Dark Ages and into the modern world. It was time, he said, to open the stained-glass windows and let in some fresh air. Shortly thereafter he convened the Council of Vatican II to implement his … Read more
Robbed of much of their vitality by the violent implosion in religious orders, especially those devoted to teaching the young, over the past fifty years, our Catholic schools have struggled to stay alive – and many have closed their doors forever. Those that remain retain but a shell of their former orthodoxy. Prior to 1960 … Read more