From the time it was announced, Catholics welcomed the year of Jubilee, the year of Mercy, with open hearts. We recall Pope Francis saying in Misericordiae Vultus (2015) that mercy “reveals the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity” and is t … [Read more...]
Humanae Vitae and the New Evangelization
June 14, 2018 by Dr. Peter Kahn
Introduction This year sees the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, Humanae Vitae. Over the years, the encyclical has received quite a mixed response across the Church. Even now, we still have theologians, bishops, and others s … [Read more...]
What is Authentic Intimacy?
November 6, 2017 by Kenton Biffert
This article is a response to a Protestant couple that disagreed with the Church’s teaching on the dignity of the marriage act. It was a pleasant evening and we were discussing some of the books I was reading. The topic of contraception … [Read more...]
Early Fall Reading
September 8, 2017 by Book Reviews
The Concept of Woman: Volume III: The Search for Communion of Persons, 1500-2015. By Sister Prudence Allen, R.S.M., Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016. 546 pages. Reviewed by Joshua M. Evans, Ph.D. Revelation. Catholic Commentary on Sacred … [Read more...]
Of Horses and Men
July 21, 2017 by Dr. John M. Grondelski
Over thirty-five years have passed since St. John Paul II issued his encyclical, Laborem exercens. Its key principle—that human labor has priority over raw capital (§12)—was, and remains, a revolutionary proposition. It shouldn’t be. Capita … [Read more...]
Education in Chaste Love After Amoris Laetitia
May 29, 2017 by Dr. Peter Kahn
Introduction After the publication of the post-synodal exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, does one still need to regard as valid the teaching of Pope Saint John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio that parents are the ones called to give their … [Read more...]
Winter Reading 2017
January 20, 2017 by Book Reviews
A Theology of Grace in Six Controversies. Edward T. Oakes, S.J. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2016) 248 pages; $28.00 paperback. Reviewed by Steven J. Meyer, S.T.D. John Lawrence Hill, After the Natural Law: How the Classical … [Read more...]
The Final Confrontation
December 20, 2016 by Dr. Ralph Martin, STD
I must say things are getting crazier—wicked crazier. I’ve heard recently of two different sets of parents telling friends of mine, when asked about their only child, whether it was a boy or a girl, and getting in response: “Well, he’s biolo … [Read more...]
Amoris Laetitia: A Deceptive Joy
May 28, 2016 by Fr. Regis Scanlon, OFMCap
The recent publication of Pope Francis' document on the family and married life, Amoris Laetitia ("Joy of Love") has caused consternation, confusion, and deep anguish among Catholics. They wonder: Are the Church’s timeless teachings on m … [Read more...]
The Fundamental Option
A Faithful Student’s Guide to a Competing 20th Century Moral Theory
April 27, 2016 by Dr. Mark S. Latkovic
For years now in the post-conciliar period, the concept of the fundamental option—which some have likened to St. Thomas Aquinas’s notion of a commitment to an “Ultimate End” as the first principle of moral action (see Benedict M. Ashley, O.P … [Read more...]
Preaching to the Young Casualties of the Sexual Revolution
February 1, 2016 by Neil Kane
For over 40 years, it has been my privilege, challenge, and joy to teach Catholic theology. I began with the somewhat maligned Junior High level (seventh grade in my parish elementary school lingo), and then Catholic high school (Grades … [Read more...]
The Family: Expanded Sacrament
September 14, 2015 by Fr. John M. McDermott, SJ
It has become a trite truism to say that the traditional family is under attack. The sources of the onslaught may be traced back at least to the 19th century’s exaltation of Romantic infatuation and its accompanying insistence that the s … [Read more...]
Conscience, Freedom, and the “Law of Graduality” at the Synod on the Family
September 14, 2015 by Rev. Thomas V. Berg, PhD
Ideas have consequences—we well know. My concern here is a series of problematic and closely related conceptions of conscience, human freedom, the moral qualification of human acts, and progress in moral living that might be operative in t … [Read more...]
To Give Up One’s Cloak
June 27, 2015 by Clara M.B. Fleischmann
When St. Martin of Tours encountered a poor, naked beggar, he tore his own warm cloak in half, to share it. Later, he discovered in a dream that the beggar was Christ. The story of St. Martin and the beggar provides a key to an area of … [Read more...]
Witnessing to Truth
Nostra Aetate and the New Evangelization
June 27, 2015 by Dr. Richard Francis Crane, PhD
The Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate revolutionized the Catholic Church’s relations with non-Christian religions, especially Judaism. The fourth part of this short declaration marked a decisive shift in Catholic-Jewish relations, r … [Read more...]
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