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All Catholic commentary from April 2021
Jesus is Not a Dictator
Without the brutal communism of the 20th century (and the emergent leftist tyranny in our country today), perhaps we would not as readily appreciate the absolute need for the Ascension of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit.
102—Becoming Cultured Without a Bow Tie—James Matthew Wilson
Poet-philosopher James Matthew Wilson returns to the show to read poems from his new collection, The Strangeness of the Good, including his "Quarantine Notebook" series, and to discuss various topics in Catholic intellectual life.
Equality Act: Combating Christians and coercing churches
The so-called Equality Act, HR 5, pushed by President Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will prevent churches which follow sexual morality as taught by Moses and Jesus Christ from obtaining commercial bank loans. Individuals who abide by the same teaching will see their employment opportunities severely curtailed under the bogus Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) provisions of HR 5.
Pasolini’s Gospel According to Matthew (1964) w/ Heather King
In 1962, inspired by Pope St. John XXIII's outreach to non-Christian artists, a gay communist picked up the Gospels and ended up making a film about Jesus. This might make you nervous, but one thing with which you can't charge Pier Paolo Pasolini is taking liberties with his source material - the dialogue in The Gospel According to Matthew is drawn entirely from that book of the Bible.
After disrupting liturgy in London, police express empty ‘regret’ but make no promises
The showdown in Southwark was particularly shocking, but the same sort of conflict has been taking place in many other places— usually, I’m say to say, with similar results.
God exiles His people when He must. What about us?
God never acts in ways that are bad for us. But He does reach a time when, on any given trajectory, He knows He has done all He can do. He reaches a time when He recognizes our definitive refusal to take refuge in the shadow of his hand (Is 49:2)—a time when He can only lament for us, for the Church we claim to honor, and for the nation we inhabit, as he lamented for Jerusalem, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not!”
37—Jerome, the Choleric Commentator
Jerome is renowned for his biblical studies and translations, The Church invokes him as Doctor, Father, and Saint. Yet he is just as famous for his sharpness in dispute. He clashed with Augustine and Rufinus, disdained Ambrose and Chrysostom. His put-downs stand with the best of Mark Twain and Groucho Marx.
On banning the Tridentine liturgy, and selling the Edsel
Isn’t it revealing, though, that the one liturgical option liberal Catholics cannot abide is the option for the ancient liturgy?
NOW bishops ask for ethical vaccines: too little, too late
The letter-writing campaign might have been a good idea, twelve months ago. But our bishops were silent then, when the ethical decisions were being made. Now the vaccines are on the market, billions of dollars have been invested, and the promotional campaign is in full swing. This campaign comes far too late.
Why can’t you just be “more loving”?
Catholics have a traditional expression which captures the proper attitude: “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” But more often than not, the person who hates the sins loved by the dominant culture is rebuked for being uncharitable, narrow, unfeeling, judgmental, and dogmatic. In other words: Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. The explanation of all this is blindingly obvious. It is rooted in that “respect of persons” which causes us to praise what our “betters” approve and to denounce what our “betters” condemn.
St. Alphonsus Liguori—Uniformity With God’s Will | Pt. 1
“Conformity signifies that we join our wills to the will of God. Uniformity means more -- it means that we make one will of God's will and ours, so that we will only what God wills; that God's will alone, is our will.”
What Segregation, White Guilt, and Black Power Can Teach Catholics
Racism came under new management. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan called it: “The soft bigotry of low expectations.”
Out of the past, three surprise books, all occasions of grace
Reading any or all of these books will be far too little to alter the course of history, or the progressive slide into ever-increasing infidelity on the part of the once-Christian West. For that a far-deeper conversion is needed than can come from reading alone—but also a far more widespread conversion, in God’s own time, inspired and nourished now by the few who lead the way.
When a bishop discourages baptism....
When should the Catholic Church bow to orders from the state? I offer a simple answer to that question: Never.
103—Pope Leo XIII’s NYC Hotel
Did you know there's a hotel in NYC named after Pope Leo XIII? The Leo House was founded in the 1880s as a boarding house for German Catholic immigrants, at the behest of the Holy Father, and is still operating today as a Catholic nonprofit hotel providing charitable hospitality at a discount.
Blocking Biden Administration’s mail order abortion pills
Aside from prayer, penance and fasting for our country’s return to adherence to the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God,” Virginia’s James Madison, fourth president of the United States and Father of the Constitution, suggested controlling the power of the purse to effect good public policy. Urge your U.S. Congressman and two U.S. Senators to cut off any FDA funding to implement Joe Biden’s abortion-by-mail policy.
The inexpressible sadness of Christian failure
We can pick any period of the Church’s history and we will find, along with any obvious successes, the following three characteristics: The Church ran into trouble with worldly power wherever she was true to her mission; serious Christians experienced frustration far more often than not; and wherever the Church appeared to be culturally dominant, or tried to cling to cultural dominance, she was in grave need of reform.
Crucifixion of a Parish Priest: Calvary (2014)
A good priest is threatened with death for the sins of an evil one. He has one week to prepare. That is the simple premise of Martin McDonagh's 2014 film Calvary, starring Brendan Gleeson. This portrait of a heroic but very human priest illuminates the crucifixions, mundane or dramatic, faced by good parish priests everywhere, but especially in post-Catholic cultures such as Ireland, in which the film is set.
St. Alphonsus Liguori—Uniformity With God’s Will | Pt. 2
“Sickness is the acid test of spirituality, because it discloses whether our virtue is real or sham.”
Vatican reforms at a crossroad, Part I: the financial scandals
In the campaign for effective reform of the Roman Curia, the first order of business should be to rein in the excessive powers of the Secretariat of State.
Highlights: Feminism and ideology; intuition, temperance and art; Great Books; Tolkien’s visual art
This episode features highlight clips from episodes 26-30 of the Catholic Culture Podcast.
Vatican reforms at a crossroad, Part II: the financial scandals
One by one the Vatican officials who were questioning Becciu’s moves were eliminated; for months, the sostituto himself— the man they were all investigating— survived
Contagious Faith in a Church that saves
Right out of the gate, in an introduction entitled “Living Dangerously”, Lawler poses the ultimate questions of life and death which are (or ought to be) answered so differently by pagans and Christians. This sets the stage for an examination of the Catholic response to Covid—a response which, whatever it may do for the body, certainly chills the soul.
38—Augustine (Part 1): Misspent Youth and Conversion
Augustine of Hippo is a name that appears on any short list of the most influential intellectuals in the history of the world. He seemed to live several productive lifetimes in the course of his own. In this first of three episodes on Augustine, we examine his dramatic early years — from his childhood through his conversion to Christ at age 31. We also consider the profound influence of his mother, Monica.
David’s choice: Falling into the hand of God
We might also have expected some very good preaching during the Pandemic to the effect that we ought not to be particularly fearful in times like this, but rather to express a simple confidence in God, knowing that whatever He permits to happen will draw us closer to Him, if only we will trust Him with our entire lives as we should. Searching my memory, I don’t think I heard any preaching to that effect ever, not even once. That seems strange to me, perhaps even ominous.
This papal reform is a blockbuster
Now the question is whether the policy will be enforced: not just the letter of the law, but the intent. Will a Vatican official still be allowed to accept donations to his “personal charity” or to an institution that he sponsors?
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