Cooperative Catholic Elderly Living Experiments

Many Catholics, such as myself, who are old and living alone think about what our options are for better ways of life. We will often consult our pastors. Our greatest motivation is probably loneliness, but also the need to be taken care … [Read more...]

Book Reviews – August 2023

Murmuring Against Moses: The Contentious History and Contested Future of Pentateuchal Studies. By John S. Bergsma and Jeffrey L. Morrow. Reviewed by Fr. Peter Heasley. (skip to review) The Heart of Perfection: How the Saints Taught Me to … [Read more...]

Book Reviews – July 2023

In the School of the Word: Biblical Interpretation from the New to the Old Testament. By Carlos Granados and Luis Sánchez-Navarro. Reviewed by Sr. Mary Micaela Hoffmann, RSM. (skip to review) Jesus Becoming Jesus (Volume 3): A T … [Read more...]

Preaching the Saints at Universities – A Case Study

Blessed Antoine-Frederic Ozanam (1813-1853)

In his Apostolic Exhortation The Word of the Lord (2010), Pope Benedict XVI includes a section entitled “The saints and the interpretation of Scripture.” He writes: “The interpretation of Sacred Scripture would remain incomplete were it n … [Read more...]

Guarino’s Prolegomena of a Systematic Theology

Orthodox Christian belief must always be the standard against which any philosophy is measured. Fully integrating postmodernity into theology — with its rejection of metaphysics, its reduction of truth to practical reason, and its r … [Read more...]

Questions Answered – October 2022

Church Teaching and the Theological Ethics of Life Question: There has been much talk about the Church changing her teaching on Humanae Vitae. This apparently is due to a recent document from the Pontifical Academy of Life: Theological … [Read more...]

Book Reviews – July 2022

The Restless Flame, Daniel Lord, S.J.: Thinking Big in a Parochial World! By Stephen A. Werner. Reviewed by Steven R. McEvoy. (skip to review) The Scandal of the Scandals. By Manfred Lütz. Reviewed by Robert Rooney. (skip to r … [Read more...]

The Church’s Teaching on Marriage, Part Three

Go to Part I Go to Part II In Vitro Fertilization, Artificial Insemination, and Surrogate Motherhood It bears repeating that “‘[e]ach human person, in his absolutely unique singularity, is constituted not only by his spirit, but by his … [Read more...]

The Church’s Teaching on Marriage, Part Two

Go to Part I Contribution of Families to Society “The very experience of communion and sharing that should characterize the family’s daily life represents its first and fundamental contribution to society.” FC at 43. “The family is thus . … [Read more...]

The Church’s Teaching on Marriage, Part One

It is often said that the Church is too concerned about sexual morality. The Church should rather be concerned about poverty, discrimination, and climate change. Such an accusation is a bit disingenuous in a culture which promotes … [Read more...]

A Touch of Experience: Where Are You?

“In the light of the experience of many couples and of the data, . . . theological reflection is . . . called to study further the difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle: it … [Read more...]

Were Adam and Eve Bad Parents?

An Ancient Lesson for Modern Parenting

Were Adam and Eve bad parents? It may seem like a bizarre question, but the challenge of parenting plagues many Catholics who are striving to raise their kids in the Church. Each fall, parents drop their sons and daughters off at college, … [Read more...]

Large Catholic Families as Prophetic Signs

The American fertility rate in 2018 was 1.7. The birth rate was 11.96. The American fertility rate in 2019 was, again, 1.7; the birth rate rose slightly to 11.99. “Fertility rate” is the average number of children born to a woman during her … [Read more...]

The Final Battle: Marriage and Family

One: Mary-with-Joseph is the Terror of Demons In 1917, in the month of May, when special devotions to Mary are observed, our Blessed Mother appeared to three small children in Fatima, Portugal. She spoke to them and promised she would … [Read more...]

Killed by the Dragon

The Effects of Contraception on Courtship and Marriage

The symbolism and words of the Book of Tobit strike us with surprising clarity, and in the manner of an “emperor with no clothes.” In our modern culture, with its “liberated” way of speaking about sex and sexuality, we have become used to su … [Read more...]