Father James G. Martin, S.J., is either a cruel or a foolish man. It does not seem to be the first. But if it is not that, it must be the second, because that alone can explain how a Catholic priest can live in the midst of massive and unprecedented family breakdown, and the chaos, … Read more
Both charity and etiquette once counseled not speaking ill of the dead. That’s generally why most obituaries take the form of encomia and why a certain “stretching of the truth” is often entertained in them. Discretion used to prove the better part of valor when discussing the dearly deceased whose vices were public knowledge. (But, … Read more
The Los Angeles Times recently published an approving article about schools’ introducing kindergartners to gender dysphoria (otherwise known as transgenderism). This topic has been much in the news lately, especially after a California charter school—without notifying parents—held a “gender-reveal ceremony” for a confused little boy. The teacher then read to the other children, now confused … Read more
Just before Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, a group of Evangelicals issued a statement reaffirming the ancient teachings of Christianity about homosexual practice, the definition of marriage, and transgenderism. Calling it “The Nashville Statement,” churchmen from a variety of evangelical traditions drafted a document aimed at catechizing the people of God. Hurricane Harvey quickly overwhelmed this … Read more
Gather round, my children. Perhaps I should have explained this before Charlottesville and Berkeley, though I never thought you would hear me. Years ago you read this poem. You said you didn’t understand it, but really you were just having too much fun in those days to pay it much attention: Turning and turning in … Read more
Sexual liberation and transhumanism share an anthropology. Both view the human person as an emergent phenomenon, and as something malleable. Both view the self as sovereign, the will as ultimately answerable to nothing other than its own prerogatives. Exploring the intersection between these two movements requires me to give an account of technology. In speaking … Read more
My imaginary sparring partner Mike has come back with some trepidation, because he never wanted to be maneuvered into saying that he wants to allow the killing of a weak and innocent human being. But now he speaks the language of “realism.” I have learned, and sometimes to my chagrin, that the Church is almost … Read more
The flow of time in which we find ourselves, between Pentecost and Corpus Christi, is a bit strange liturgically. Pentecost ends the Easter Season and launches us back into Ordinary Time. The first weeks of post-Pentecost Ordinary Time include two major solemnities: Trinity Sunday (which used to be connected with Pentecost by a suppressed octave, … Read more
One of the great truths lost in the zealotry of gender politics is that unlike animal sexuality, which is purely instinctive, human sexuality is a combination of instinct and socialization. We are not just “born this way.” Human sexual desire is cultivated. It can be channeled toward beauty, love, and even sublime self-sacrifice, culminating in … Read more
The Christian church must confront the Sexual Revolution squarely and in its full force. An earlier article in Crisis described how the churches have been cowed by diffidence and fear. If the Western church is to survive in a meaningful way, now is the time to summon its courage and grasp the nettle it has … Read more
“The Personal is Political” was a slogan engineered by Marxist feminists of the 1960s and 1970s. Few people realized at the time exactly what that slogan entailed. “The personal is political” should have telegraphed loud and clear that these women intended to politicize every aspect of our personal lives. Many people dismissed extreme feminism as … Read more
“Abandonment of Christian sexual morality is the core of the Church’s self-secularization.” ∼ Gabriele Kuby, The Global Sexual Revolution From time to time, the church finds itself with egg on its face because of its failure to speak out in the face of grievous injustices. The Nazi episode, the Civil Rights movement in the United … Read more
Every year, we are fortunate to hear two accounts in church of the Passion during Holy Week—the first one on Palm Sunday and the second one on Good Friday. The latter account is always from Saint John’s Gospel. On Palm Sunday, we rotate among the Synoptic Gospels according to Cycles A, B, and C. This … Read more
Once regarded as a virtue, chastity is now largely considered a fool’s quest. Those perpetrating chastity’s demise depict its death as a victory for life and love. Yet the opposite is true; an unchaste world is one of self-absorption and death. In subordinating the procreational nature of sex to recreational purposes, an unchaste society will … Read more
When the Supreme Court imposed phony marriage on the entire country, the LGBTs were left wondering what to do next, how to keep their issue boiling? Some of them, chief among them radio host/activist Michelangelo Signorelli, accurately predicted that the conservative Christian response would be to protect religious freedom, that the Christians would beg to … Read more
With everyone marrying anyone, it would seem only a matter of time before someone would end up marrying no one. Leave it to the postmodern imagination to open up absurd frontiers in non-marriage. Marrying no one is now an option. Officially, it is called sologamy. It consists of a person marrying one’s self. It sounds … Read more
Editor’s note: The following address by Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln was delivered at the Spirit Catholic Radio/Catholic Answers Evangelization Conference in Omaha on October 29, 2016. This version has been slightly shortened. ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ Dear friends in Christ, I am very glad to be here with you for … Read more
In responding to the Orlando massacre at a same-sex nightclub, Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg found religion, including Catholicism, responsible for the slaughter. He wrote, “sadly it is religion, including our own, which targets, mostly verbally, and also often breeds contempt for gays, lesbians and transgender people.” And he is right … Read more
Mary Eberstadt is a master of analogy. In her masterful work Adam and Eve After the Pill, she compared the Sexual Revolution to communism, an ideology that hasn’t so much as failed, don’t you know, as one that simply needs one more good try. Neither empirical evidence, nor high body count, will convince true believers … Read more
A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. ∼ Henry David Thoreau, Walden A few months ago, a young woman at Stanford … Read more