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...]
Magazine
Combating Islam and Secularism
May 18, 2018 by Don Murray
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...]
Homilies for May 2018
May 2, 2018 by Fr. James Orr
Sixth Sunday of Easter—May 6, 2018 Readings: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/050618.cfm Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4; 1 Jn 4:7-10; Jn 15:9-17. Love is a word that gets a lot of play in the world. Love makes the wo … [Read more...]
Frank Sheed on Church Teachings
April 28, 2018 by Fr. James V. Schall, SJ
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
April 28, 2018 by Mo Woltering
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
April 28, 2018 by E. Tyler Graham
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
April 28, 2018 by Carolyn Humphreys, OCDS
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
April 28, 2018 by Robert V. Thomann, DMin, PhD
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...]
Questions Answered
April 28, 2018 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
Question: What is the origin of female altar servers? Answer: Female altar servers are a fact of life in the Church since 1992. The ability of girls to serve at Mass is established by papal authority, so one must accept their possibility … [Read more...]
Spring Book Reviews
April 28, 2018 by Book Reviews
Saint Mary Magdalene: Prophetess of Eucharistic Love by Fr. Sean Davidson (Ignatius Press, 2017). Reviewed by Rev. John P. Cush, STD. And Mary’s ‘Yes’ Continues. By the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, under the direc … [Read more...]
Easter Morning
March 30, 2018 by David Vincent Meconi
The heart of our Catholic Existence is to replicate the Risen Christ’s life. It is not Good Friday that saves our souls, but Easter morning. For without our Lord’s victorious rising from the tomb, the ignominy of the Cross would have just be … [Read more...]
Culture of Encounter in Ferguson
March 30, 2018 by Rev. John O'Brien
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
March 30, 2018 by Brent Withers
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
March 30, 2018 by Fr. Carmen Mele, O.P.
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
March 30, 2018 by Jeffrey Tranzillo
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...]
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