Catholic Politicians, Canon 1375, and Impeding Catholic Ministry
There has been much discussion in recent years regarding what the Catholic Church can do about self-identified Catholic politicians who support policies considered gravely immoral by the Church. Most of the conversation has centered around Canon 915, which states that those who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to […]
Our Lady’s Words to Women and Our Culture
In a time when our nation, through the Equality Act, is attempting to redefine sex as a matter of thought, and when our culture states that empowered women are those that choose themselves over family or abortion over sacrifice, Mary stands as a witness to who women are called to be. Every year, on March […]
The Solemnity of the Conception of Jesus
Whenever the Advent season approaches, our thoughts turn quite naturally toward Christmas and, with the urging of the Church, we rightly use the Advent season to prepare our souls for the coming of Our Lord. Christmas and Easter are probably the two most popular, and most solemn, Holy Days among Catholics and we rightly prepare […]
The Benedict Option and the Veritatis Splendor Community: Are They the Same Thing?
Many Christians are thinking seriously about how to decouple from the popular culture and form versions of community and culture that will encourage the flourishing of their faith. To unthinkingly absorb mainstream entertainment, participate in public education, or patronize Big Tech’s latest offerings seems increasingly like madness considering their clear intentions to sideline us and […]
Woke Sexuality Descends into Incomprehensible Jibber Jabber
Eccentricity, says Ambrose Bierce in his Devil’s Dictionary, is “a method of distinction so cheap that fools employ it to accentuate their incapacity.” If you’re looking for fools, and want to observe them accentuating their incapacity, you need look no further than contemporary sexual progressivists. Though, I must warn you, you may not know whether […]
The Odyssey in a Nutshell
As with The Iliad, Homer begins The Odyssey with a prayer to his Muse, the supernatural spirit of creativity, for the inspiration to tell the story of Odysseus well. He begins by recounting that Odysseus’ men “were destroyed by their own wild recklessness” and then sets the theological scene for the whole epic in the […]
True Patriotism in a Marxist Wasteland
This past Christmas Eve, I sat with my wife, sister and brother in-law, and my four small children in a small elementary school gymnasium. We sat on old foldout chairs made of plastic in groupings of seats that were set at least six feet from the next grouping. When we knelt, we knelt on the […]
Does the Church No Longer Defend the Deposit of Faith?
When I first heard the story of a silly nun who’d gotten herself ordained as a Protestant priestess while teaching theology at a major Catholic University, I was not surprised. Nor was I surprised to learn of the subsequent lawsuit she filed to prevent her being fired. What did surprise me, however, was the fact […]
Contraception and Wet-Blanket Ecumenism
I was just a kid when the Second Vatican Council was brewing. It was called an ecumenical council; that is, a council meant to be universal in scope. The ecumenism that was of specific interest to the council was focused on communicating with non-Catholics; that is, there was interest in reducing unnecessary friction between religions, […]
The Pornification of Society
In those periodic moments where public discourse centers on the topic of pornography, it is always put in terms of the individual. There is abundant science behind pornography consumption, showing its effects on the brain and one’s reproductive health as well as its addictiveness. Many critics will also point out how constant stimulation of pornographic […]