Search or Browse Commentary
All Catholic commentary from August 2019
Episode 46—Sing With Your Children—Roundabout
Emma and Cecilia Black grew up in a large family that sang together constantly. Now these two sisters from Grand Rapids, Michigan, have made an album of folk songs for children. They want people to know that any family can start singing...
Remembering the day when the ‘politics of personal destruction’ began
“The growing plague of offense and disrespect in speech and actions must end,” says Archbishop Wilton Gregory in his highly publicized response to President Trump’s remarks about squalor in Baltimore. “I fear that recent public comments by our President and others and the...
Our One and Only God
Being away this week, I decided to repost some thoughts I had while on vacation nearly ten years ago. I was on vacation last week, so I deliberately avoided controversy. But I did plenty of meditating on what it means to be a Christian. As it happened, I did much of this meditating while...
Understanding an ideological purge at the Vatican
Pay careful attention to the statement by Msgr. Livio Melina regarding the radical change in orientation at the John Paul II Institute, where he, until recently, served as president: If the decisions taken by Archbishop Paglia are not revoked, then what they are saying is: ‘The interpretation...
Please, stop talking about ‘values’
This week I have received a political flyer aimed at “values voters,” heard a fundraising pitch from an organization that upholds family “values,” and sat through a sermon about maintaining Christian “values” in a secular world. The constant references to...
Reason, faith, and the pursuit of wisdom
“However secularized a civilization may become,” writes Samuel Gregg in his excellent new book, “it can never entirely escape from the burden of its spiritual inheritance.” The civilization of the Western world is the product of a singularly fruitful marriage between faith...
Sample a beautiful new musical setting for the Mass in English
When was the last time you heard new Catholic liturgical music that was beautiful, reverent, accessible, and easy to learn? Since the talented composer Paul Jernberg is a friend and neighbor, it happens to me often. Do yourself a favor, and watch at least the trailer for a video recording of a...
St. Lawrence’s Universal Appeal
From the Archives: This post was originally published in 2016. August 10 marks the Feast of St. Lawrence (Laurence) of Rome, deacon and martyr, known for his charity for the sick, poor and abandoned. Under the persecution of Emperor Valerian he was grilled to death on a gridiron in 258. St....
Equal Rights Amendment: Attempts to Resurrect it 37 Years Too Late
Proponents of a continued effort to ratify the legally defunct Equal Rights Amendment are targeting the State of Virginia, among others, to attempt ratification. The ERA would legally obliterate the real distinctions between male and female, which are essential to any healthy culture—in...
Episode 47—Our Lady’s Habit: Wearing and Loving the Brown Scapular—Fr. Justin Cinnante, O.Carm.
Many Catholics have worn the Brown Scapular at some point in their lives. Some of those people stopped wearing it for one reason or another. Others have continued to wear it but perhaps don’t appreciate its true depth as a sign of...
Apologetics vs. evangelization? Argument and witness for the sake of others
The purpose of evangelization is to make Christ and the Church known to others so that they might receive the gift of faith and choose to convert to Christianity. It is a work accomplished in close collaboration with the Holy Spirit. The purpose of apologetics, on the other hand, is to clear away...
Sing of Mary, 5: The Assumption is the Crown
Yesterday was the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so it seemed fitting to spend part of the day adding to the reflections on the Mother of God which make up our Sing of Mary series. Since the Catholic dogma of the Assumption of Mary body and soul into heaven was not...
Seven things you should know about global population trends
Today our news team highlighted a report in Foreign Affairs which argues that the world is on the verge of a population bust. Here are seven things you need to know about current demographic trends: 1. Both population growth and the impact of population growth are hard to predict: Population...
Catholic Quagmire: The Latest eBook from CatholicCulture.org
I have just generated and posted a new (and, as always, free) ebook: Catholic Quagmire: Essays on How the Church Bogs Down. This is a collection of my essays, written between early 2017 and early 2019, which focus on the many ways in which Catholics and their leaders tend to reflect the thought...
Episode 48—Authority and Submission as Gift in Christian Marriage—Mary Stanford
“Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in...
Conversion: Intellectually satisfying, spiritually overwhelming
A short time ago, Ignatius Press published an extraordinary book—well done in every conceivable respect—entitled Faith and Reason: Philosophers Explain Their Turn to Catholicism. Edited by Brian Besong and Jonathan Fuqua, also both philosophers, the book naturally promised to be a...
Shredding the working text for the Pan-Amazon synod
The annual Synod of Bishops will meet from October 6 to October 27 this year to examine the problems of the Pan-Amazon region in South America. From the first, the Instrumentum Laboris (working document) for the Synod has been criticized as a destructive exercise in the religious and cultural...
On Providence (or) Reflections on a trashed cookie
Two of our children with young families gave us a “Frameo”. It is one of those electronic picture frames which displays a sequence of images that can be updated easily from smart phones wherever our children happen to be. At last count, my wife and I have fifteen grandchildren, which...
The Pell Case: Australia’s Dreyfus Affair?
The conviction of Cardinal George Pell on sex-abuse charges, despite the complete absence of evidence against him, was a shock and a black mark against the Australian justice system. The decision by an appeals court to uphold that verdict compounds the problem and the disgrace. The cardinal
Routine annulment as ‘cynical duplicity’—a non-Catholic’s perspective
David Bentley Hart begins his Commonweal article by stating that he is not a Catholic, and he proceeds to give “traditionalist” Catholics a drubbing. But if you persevere to the end of the piece, you find some refreshingly blunt analysis of the prevailing Catholic approach to marriage...
The Seattle suicide: not ‘confusion’ but grave scandal
After the publication of an an AP story about a man who received a blessing in a Catholic church just a few days before committing suicide, the Seattle archdiocese released a statement that read in part: The Associated Press story about Mr. Fuller is of great concern to the Archbishops because...
Luke’s Gospel: The Radical Challenge of Jesus Christ
As I mentioned in treating Matthew and Mark, it is difficult to say something truly original in a commentary on the Gospels. Consequently, I have tried simply to highlight an overall theme for each one: For Matthew, Jesus as the Messiah; for Mark, Christ as Son of God; and now, for Luke, the...
Want more commentary? Visit the Archives.
