Last night our college celebrated the vigil of the Immaculate Conception in the exact same way as every other Catholic school in America — with mulled cider, makeshift medieval costumes, the performance of two Mystery plays depicting the Fall of Man and the Dream of St. Joseph, and chanted vespers. The usual. I’m sure that … Read more
Every group has its code words. These words serve an imÂportant social function — they enable the members of the group to deliver a harsh judgment on others withÂout accountability. In the Catholic world, when someone is called “divisive,” it means he is too conservative to be trusted. Those who are “divisive” threaten the “unity … Read more
Is marriage obsolete? According to a new TIME/ Pew Research Center poll, 40% of Americans believe it is. What we found is that marriage, whatever its social, spiritual or symbolic appeal, is in purely practical terms just not as necessary as it used to be. Neither men nor women need to be married to have … Read more
Once upon a time, Catholic parents sent their sons and daughters off to a Catholic college confident that their children would receive a sound Catholic education. They expected their offspring to return home in four years not only with professional skills and greater knowledge of science, art, and culture but with a deepened understanding of … Read more
At a dads’ get-together a few days ago, one of the guys said that he was planning on having his kids pay for college themselves because he wanted them to stay Catholic. At this rather-bizarre-on-the-face-of-it statement, many of the guys had questions, and this fellow proceeded to say that from his experience, kids who had … Read more
Christopher Hitchens surveys the political landscape and wonders what sane person would choose to run for office today: I could introduce you to dozens of enthusiastic and intelligent people, highly aware of “the issues” and very well-informed on all questions from human rights to world trade to counterinsurgency, to none of whom it would occur … Read more
“Be right back!” I said to my coworker as I ran to the ladies restroom in my office. Tearing open the Target shipping box, the bright red swimsuit I had ordered online fell into my hands. I slid the strapless, ruched one-piece on and swung open the bathroom stall door to look in the mirror. … Read more
During four years of college and seven of graduate school, most of it in philosophy and theology, I heard only one lecture on virtue — the virtue of art. Thus I consider it miraculous that the language of virtue has returned to public discourse. But the virtues don’t tell the whole story about human life. … Read more
During four years of college and seven of graduate school, most of it in philosophy and theology, I heard only one lecture on virtue — the virtue of art. Thus I consider it miraculous that the language of virtue has returned to public discourse. But the virtues don’t tell the whole story about human life. … Read more
It’s Friday! Just a few quick links this morning: Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up? One professor is pushing to have the 20s recognized “as a distinct life stage, which he calls ’emerging adulthood.’” Yet another treatment developed using adult stem cells — this time to rebuild … Read more
In my 15 years with Crisis Magazine, the Morley Institute, and now InsideCatholic, the conversation that most often reoccurs is the one about the fate of the Catholic university and college. It begins inevitably with alumni complaining about the latest anti-Catholic outbreak on the hallowed grounds of their former college campus and ends with their … Read more
Survival is the least of my desires. –Dorothy Allison It’s that time of year again: Sultry heat punctuated by thunderstorms, back-to-school charity drives at church . . . and the publication of endless “college survival guides” for incoming freshmen. At first glance, this clichéd phrase might seem a bit overstated. College isn’t exactly the ascent … Read more
It’s a pretty well-established fact that the new social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) have permanently changed the way we think about on-line privacy. But I’m not sure I had thought about it in terms as stark as those Jeffrey Rosen uses in his New York Times Magazine article, “The Web Means the End of Forgetting” (my emphasis … Read more
Modern liberal Catholic colleges and universities have made a mockery of academic freedom, as the recent Marquette “controversy” reveals (see my analysis here and here). Unfortunately, in reaction to the modernism, relativism, careerism, atheism, skepticism, and political correctness of the typical “Catholic” educational institutions today, some of the more unapologetically orthodox Catholic colleges and universities … Read more
LifeSiteNews has just published a story containing, to my mind, the surest sign of a decadent culture. The chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town, David Benatar, has pubished a book, “Better To Never Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence.” The basic argument is this: Human existence necessarily … Read more
LifeSiteNews has just published a story containing, to my mind, the surest sign of a decadent culture. The chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town, David Benatar, has pubished a book, “Better To Never Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence.” The basic argument is this: Human existence necessarily … Read more
I felt the question coming like a dog feels the pulse of the earth before a quake. I had tracked Monsignor’s comments from, “How quickly they grow,” to, “What grade are you in this year, Ann?” and I knew what came next. So did Ann. Exactly one beat before the question came, we exchanged a … Read more
You cannot act for twenty-four hours without deciding either to hold people responsible or not to hold them responsible. Theology is a product far more practical than chemistry. Some Determinists fancy that Christianity invented a dogma like free will for fun — a mere contradiction. This is absurd. You have the contradiction wherever you are. … Read more
Over the course of many months thinking about the deadly sins and opposing virtues, I’ve ranged pretty widely. In dealing with Greed and Generosity, I have drawn (so far as I know) the only direct connections yet between Chinese Communism, elves, ostrich farms, and the mortgage crisis. But that’s what being Catholic (from katholikos, or … Read more
As readers know, I live in Michigan. And our state is in one helluvan economic slump right now, due to a number of factors. Pundits continue to talk about what caused this, taking a macro view of our economic situation. I’d like to take a micro view – what unemployment and underemployment does to the … Read more