In his inaugural address, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stressed to the people of the United States, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Nothing to fear! Really! We were facing lengthy wars in Europe and in the Pacific. There … [Read more...]
Articles
Combating Islam and Secularism
The Catholic Church faces two formidable challenges today, from Islam and from secularism. The responses needed to these two are not unrelated. The adherents to Islam are intensely dedicated to Mohammed, and to the book he claims to have … [Read more...]
Frank Sheed on Church Teachings
We hear much discussion of late about church teaching, especially with regard to marital issues, and whether statements of the Pope violate classical norms. Cardinals issue their doubts; sixty theologians inaugurate what they call … [Read more...]
Revisiting the Letter to Families
Pope St. John Paul II’s Letter to Families, which was first published in 1994, is a gem highly worth revisiting. This treatise on the family is packed with inspiring theology for families, and especially fathers. Moreover, it is also very a … [Read more...]
Teaching Desire: Mimetic Pedagogy in Catholic Schools
Three important documents have emerged in the last decade of the American Catholic educational scene: Archbishop (now Cardinal) Dolan’s clarion cry to resurrect the dying “Catholic Schools We Need,” the Diocese of Lansing’s proclamation to m … [Read more...]
Prayer as Energy for the Road
Every man has two journeys to make through life. There is the outer journey, with its various incidents and milestones. There is also an inner journey, a spiritual odyssey, with a secret history of its own. (William Inge) Like our physical … [Read more...]
The Blinding of Human Environmental Greatness
There is a great darkness that is descending on our world—a darkness that emerges from an ever deepening blindness of the eye that sees truth, the eye that sees the invisible, the eye that gives voice to the reality of beauty. Man and woman … [Read more...]
Culture of Encounter in Ferguson
Ferguson, Missouri has become a touchstone of contemporary discourse on race relations, usually juxtaposing African American and white populations. Yet, this Missouri town is also home to a Catholic parish that serves, among others, over a … [Read more...]
Psychopathy
A Deeper Reality Revealed Through Catholicism
It is my hope that through the lens of the wisdom of the Church’s tradition, I am able to reveal the deeper reality that remains hidden behind the label of psychopathy. By its very nature, an exploration into the world of the psychopath s … [Read more...]
The Ends of Contemporary Gnostic Thinking
Extensive tattoos and multiple skin piercings amaze most people over sixty. Yet there seems hardly a word of critique of these body deformations in journals. Thinking about Gnosticism, I suspect that this ancient philosophical aberration … [Read more...]
Corrupt Pastoral Practice Means Corrupt Doctrine
Amoris Laetitia’s Dirty Little Secret
When Amoris Laetitia (hereafter AL) was first published in March 2016, Pope Francis’s episcopal cheerleaders insisted that the document has introduced no changes to Church doctrine: it merely explores how we are to understand the “pastoral a … [Read more...]
The Dilemma of Pope Francis: The 2018 World Meeting of Families
By now everyone — especially Catholics — should know that the 2018 World Meeting of Families, sponsored by the Vatican Congregation of Marriage and Family Life, will gather in Dublin, Ireland this August. In recent months, stories about t … [Read more...]
Briefly Revisiting Pre-1983 Canonical Practice for a Better Response to Marriage Issues
The juridical significance of mental illness and psychic anomalies in marriage has shifted over centuries from a description of an illicit act to one of invalid consent. Early pronouncements on insane individuals who contracted marriage … [Read more...]
When All Else Fails, Begin With Wonder
I often admire my young daughter’s capacity for awe. She is able to marvel at just about anything. A few days ago, she was closely examining two bugs she had found. “Look,” she told me excitedly. “This bug has long legs, and this bug has sho … [Read more...]
The “Hour” According to Saint John
This article consists of a study of the development of the theme of Our Lord's hour, as used in the Fourth Gospel by the evangelist; its use is inclusive of His Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, considered as a unit, a single … [Read more...]
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