The autonomous territory of Hong Kong is in a fight for its life. For over two months, the citizens of Hong Kong have persisted in protesting an attempt by the Hong Kong chief executive to impose an amendment to the existing extradition laws that would allow the Chinese government to take suspects from Hong Kong [...]

SB 360, also known as Senate Bill 360, a proposal requiring priests in California to break the sacramental seal of confession, was placed on hold by its sponsor, State Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), on 9 June, right before a hearing on the bill. For months before the vote, activists in California, across the nation, [...]

Two elderly priests I know have offered complementary insights into our current cultural crisis: “Social engineering is preceded by verbal engineering,” and “Those who win the language wars win the culture wars.” Language carefully hones, shapes—or distorts—our culture. And, since language is our medium for comprehension, our use of language directly impacts our ability to [...]

I wrote here at Crisis back in March 2018 about the all-too-common link between mass shooters and fatherlessness. That was in the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida incident. Looking at a list of the worst mass shooters in U.S. history, it was clear that the vast majority came from broken families lacking a consistent biological [...]

Truths become truisms by being true. Shakespeare may have got some of his Aristotle through Ben Jonson; but, in any case, he has Polonius quoting the philosopher’s truism about night following the day. This is a roundabout way of saying that certain untutored impulses are inevitable, and one of them now is the annually predictable [...]

Nobody blamed the truck when 29-year-old Uzbek national Sayfullo Saipov rented a pickup from Home Depot 18 months ago and deliberately mowed down a dozen pedestrians and bicyclists in New York City, killing eight. There was no lobbying for background checks or more laws around vehicle rentals. Yet every time there’s a mass shooting, political [...]

One of the perils of living in America, ostensibly a democracy, is that we might start to think our elected officials represent the majority and are trying to justly balance various minority perspectives with the majority’s opinion. Believing this would be a mistake. A quick look at the issue of abortion shows just how little [...]

“Where men are forbidden to honor a king,” C.S. Lewis warned, “they honor millionaires, athletes or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.” I suppose the gentle don never considered what might happen if men were given a [...]

Governor Mike Dunleavy of Alaska made national headlines with his novel challenge to a decision by state’s supreme court, which requires the Alaskan state government to fund abortions. Dunleavy vetoed a portion of the state’s appropriation for its judicial branch: a portion equal to the amount the court requires the government to provide for abortions [...]

Pop star Miley Cyrus told Elle magazine that she and her husband Liam Hemsworth did not intend to have children. Like many millennials, “We don’t want to reproduce because we know the earth can’t handle it.” Cyrus, who declares she’s “such an over-thinker,” doesn’t want to bring children into the world because “[w]e’re getting handed [...]

With the next round of Democratic presidential candidate debates that are scheduled for next week, Americans will not hear a discussion of ideas and proposals to solve the nation’s problems, although that should be the purpose of any serious debate. But today, debate means theater. It means posturing. Candidates must capitalize on every gesture and emotion. [...]

July was not a good month for the former CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. And I am not taking about Cecile Richards. I am referring to Leana Wen, who, after suffering a miscarriage early in July, also suffered a job loss when on July 16 the Planned Parenthood board of directors showed her [...]

Jack Fowler, a longtime publishing executive at National Review, sat alone and lonely at the way back during the conference. A National Review writer sat among the press and wrote a first-day story. She reported it as straight news, no comment. To be sure, National Review editor Rich Lowry spoke to the crowd and did [...]

Since the European Union elections in May, Poland has entered a summer marching season. More precisely, there are traditional religious processions, on the one hand, and LGBT “pride” parades on the other. The former boast millions of participants, in particular, the nationwide Corpus Christi holiday held in every parish; the latter attract thousands and, usually, [...]

The political scene is drawing toward the center of our national consciousness (if it ever left) as Democratic presidential debates take place and the 2020 election nears. As this process happens, faithful Catholics need sound ways to think about candidates, policies, and the landscape in general. Josef Pieper, a great twentieth-century philosopher, provides a broad [...]

As expected, the U.S. Women’s National Team won the Women’s World Cup. As also expected, members of the women’s team, led by chief spokeswoman Megan Rapinoe, were known as much for their politics as for their play. Rapinoe got it going with her comment that she wouldn't visit the “f–ing” White House if she was [...]

Believers won the latest battle concerning the free exercise of religion in these United States. The Supreme Court again proved amicable in its 7-2 decision in American Legion v. American Humanist Association, ruling that the 40-foot Peace Cross standing on a public cemetery for nearly a century can remain, largely because it was erected in [...]

I provide the following glossary as a service to those unwoke, unhip noctambulants who, like me, find themselves obliviously sleepwalking through the dreamscape of contemporary American culture. I provide for your edification, fellow somnambulists, the following terms taken from the argot of those who place themselves at the vanguard of the current reproductive rights/reproductive justice [...]

In one of the most infamous “Nixon tapes,” recorded by one of the most unjustly hated presidents in U.S. history, Nixon is captured conversing with Evangelical leader and “America’s Pastor,” the Reverend Billy Graham, immediately after the National Prayer breakfast on February 1, 1972. Noting the changing of the guard in the American power structure, [...]

Recent news stories make one wonder if our legal system is abandoning our traditional Anglo-American principles of justice and instead becoming increasingly unreasonable, unprincipled, and allowing itself to become a tool for furthering political bias, revenge-seeking, and “making examples.” We can start off with the spectacle of the two-year-long investigation of the 2016 Trump presidential [...]