Spiritual pride is an occupational hazard of the priesthood, and a potentially deadly disease. Because of our current ecclesiastical environment, I think it is important to mention clergy abuse cases. Quite apart from the personal emotional … [Read more...]
Articles
Evil as Good and Good as Evil
“Woe to those who say evil is good and good is evil . . .” (Isaiah 5:20) The response of a person who has their conscience pricked will range from one of irritation to annoyance, impatience, anger, and, depending on the state of the ind … [Read more...]
The Dark Spirit in Our Institutions
Catholics, Take Heed
There is a dark spirit, a spirit of unreason, stalking the world. In earlier times we might have characterized it as a Dionysian spirit attempting to oust Apollo. This spirit urges those who listen to it to throw off the constraints of the … [Read more...]
Saint Edith Stein
Footsteps to Truth
“Whoever seeks the truth is seeking God.” – Saint Edith Stein, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. While the general story of Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [1891–1942]) might be well known, her kind of concern for truth in all … [Read more...]
Catholicism and the Zombies of Evolution
Zombies — an undead fictional being created through the reanimation of a human corpse — are all the rage today in popular culture. Many have heard of the top-rated TV show The Walking Dead (the second most-popular TV show in the world) des … [Read more...]
The Intentional Killing of an Innocent Human Being Is the Worst Sin!
Life is the first right, on which all the others are based, and which cannot be recuperated once it is lost. – St. John Paul II. This essay is intended to help pro-life apologists address the issue of abortion in parishes, homes, and the … [Read more...]
Second Peter
The Transfiguration Is the Interpretive Key of the Second Coming
Reading Mark’s Gospel with the Faith of Saint Peter and the Church Saint Peter’s Second Epistle soars the heights of the Spirit akin to the spiritual heights of John’s proclamation of the Gospel (Jn 1:1–14). He whose gift of faith caused Ch … [Read more...]
Who Was Hubert Jedin?
In November, 1991, the Homiletic and Pastoral Review published a memorandum of Hubert Jedin written in 1968. But many in the English-speaking world were quite unaware of who this man was and what his contribution to the Church consisted of. … [Read more...]
A Sweet Remedy for Our Troubled Times
The Practice of Confession According to St. Francis De Sales
In these tumultuous times in the world and in the Church, we need more than ever to plunge into the mystery of God’s infinite mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and to be inspired by the witness of the saints. What better place to s … [Read more...]
Parochial Solipsism
It is not excessive to suggest that three quarters of the life of the American pastor is consumed with administrative governance. He is, for all intents and purposes, the head of a small business. He hires and fires, reviews budgets, … [Read more...]
Alternate Views on the Root Causes of the Bishops’ Clergy Sex-Abuse Cover-Up
The Church is now in the throes of the second wave of the clergy sex-abuse crisis, which began June 20, 2018, with the exposé of former cardinal archbishop of Washington Theodore E. McCarrick’s abuse of minors and seminarians. Since then, at … [Read more...]
Father de Caussade and the Abandonment to Divine Providence
Existentially Bored Currently, we are witnessing a widespread cultural shift away from the Christian faith and an odd movement in many hearts toward various Eastern philosophies and spiritualities. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once … [Read more...]
Our Lady of Good Help, the New Evangelization, and the Priest
June 30, 2019 by Fr. Frederick L. Miller, STD
Allow me to begin by making two confessions: I arrived at the Monastery of the Holy Name of Jesus in Denmark, Wisconsin, on Friday afternoon. I am an old friend of the nuns and try to visit them at least once a year. Two of the nuns, … [Read more...]
Inverting the Relevance of the Gospel
June 30, 2019 by Steve Morrisson
We hear much these days about relevance and the need to be relevant in all we do. The admonition applies to politicians, parents, teachers and especially pastors who are exhorted to make Scripture relevant to their congregations. What can … [Read more...]
God Isn’t Your College Professor
June 30, 2019 by David B. Wester
It’s the end of another semester. Final exams need to be marked and grades need to be assigned to a group of students anxious to learn “what they got” for the course. There’s so much in all of this that begs for the usual justification. T … [Read more...]
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