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All Catholic commentary from July 2016
Feasting for Junípero Serra
From the 2015 archives for the feast of St. Junipero Serra: We have a brand new American saint, St. Junípero Serra; he is the first saint canonized on American soil. Our family is still enjoying celebrating this new saint. He is a new member of our Catholic Family, and we have been...
Debate tactics for embattled Christians: retreat, engage politely, or take the offensive?
My theme for today is debating tactics. What is the most effective way to challenge the reigning liberal/secular ideology, at a time when Christians are being steadily pushed toward the margins? Should we retreat into protected enclaves? Or continue to insist-- politely but forcefully-- on our...
Why Be Catholic? 4: Resurrection
Though I take it up as the fourth in this series, surely the Resurrection of Jesus Christ provides the first and most obvious reason to be both a Christian and a Catholic, for it is Christ’s Resurrection which bears ultimate witness to the truth of the relationship between man and God which...
If the Church apologizes to homosexuals, what comes next?
Pope Francis says that the Church should apologize to homosexuals. But how should we go about it? The Holy Father made it clear, in that remarkable statement, that he thought individual Christians, not the universal Church, had mistreated homosexuals. Certainly I should apologize to anyone...
If the right to life is unalienable, assisted suicide is unconstitutional
When we think of “unalienable rights”—as we often do, on the 4th of July—we usually think of rights that cannot ever be taken away from us without injustice. But an “unalienable” right is something more: it is a right that we cannot give away freely without...
Why Be Catholic? 5: Perfection
Anyone with aspirations to human perfection ought to investigate Catholicism seriously. This is, in some ways, an extension of the second number in this series dealing with personal freedom, for freedom is essentially the ability to pursue one’s proper end, which is also the path to...
Angelus Bells
Last week I wrote about Ordinary Time, Writing Our Acts. A large part of living in Ordinary Time is establishing a rhythm of prayer in our lives. Our family has been trying to remember to pray the Angelus once or sometimes twice a day. In times past, local church bells gave reminders of the...
Why Be Catholic? 6: Divine Intimacy
Among all the concepts of God the world has known, only one draws the believer into the most profound intimacy of love. This intimacy is completely dependent upon the unique way in which the Christian God interacts in its three persons, and in which the Catholic God interacts with men. I refer, of...
Catholics Do the Strangest Things
The celebration of St. Maria Goretti’s feast on July 6 reminds me of the opportunity our family had last October to view the relics of St. Maria Goretti, which were touring the eastern United States (and perhaps returning in 2017 for the western portion). To a non-Catholic, this exhibit...
When the state decides if you're the baby's parents
This Indiana court ruling, requiring the state to list both members of a same-sex couple on a child's birth certificate, nearly escaped our notice. It's not the first such court ruling; it won't be the last. And the implications are frightening. When the Supreme Court unilaterally...
What Polynesian languages teach us about the ad orientem liturgy
Several years ago I wrote that a return to the ad orientem posture would be the single most important reform to enrich Catholic liturgy. So I am delighted that Cardinal Robert Sarah proposed exactly that. This is not just another blue-sky proposal; not a “what if” suggestion....
Why Be Catholic? 7: Tradition
This is not primarily an essay about Sacred Tradition, which is certainly another worthy apologetical topic. Instead, I have in mind here the Catholic Church’s unique vision of human nature, a vision so profound that one particular dimension of it is just now beginning to be grasped in the...
Quick Hits: Cardinal Sarah's speech, the Pope and his critics
Yesterday CWN reported-- and I celebrated -- the wonderful suggestion by Cardinal Robert Sarah that priests should celebrate Mass ad orientem. Today there’s more good news: the text of Cardinal Sarah’s...
Why Be Catholic? 8: Incarnation
There is, in the Catholic vision of reality, a profound understanding of the impenetration of matter by grace which we call the Incarnational principle. The Incarnation of God the Son as Jesus Christ is the bedrock which underlies the Christian vision of the relationship between God and man. In...
Quick Hits: mayor judges prelate, the real Archbishop Cupich, confusion in Brazil
Philadelphia’s Mayor Jim Kenney, who identifies himself as a Catholic, has scolded Archbishop Charles Chaput for confirming the Church’s age-old teaching that Catholics who divorce and remarry cannot receive the Eucharist unless they agree to abstain from sexual intercourse....
Why Be Catholic? 9: The Fall
It is difficult—it has always been difficult, I think—to find a worldview that makes perfect sense. For example, if we believe the universe is created and governed by an all-loving God, we have trouble explaining natural and moral evils. But if we believe we are not created and there...
Another costly setback for Vatican financial reform
Here’s what you need to know about the latest reconfiguration of the Vatican’s financial agencies: The Secretariat for the Economy was established to carry out reforms in the wake of financial scandals, to establish transparency and accountability. The proposed reforms irked...
Why Be Catholic? 10: Reason
At first glance, a title which makes “Reason” a point in favor of Catholicism may look odd to modern eyes. We’re accustomed, after all, to thinking of reason as a faculty which we must use independently of faith to solve human problems, something that faith obscures. It has been...
Why Be Catholic? 11: Peace
Another one of the many reasons I am grateful for being a Catholic is the peace it brings to my life. The history of the Church and the lives of the saints suggest that this is a universal experience, and we shouldn’t be surprised: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to...
Cardinal Sarah's speech: a stealth success?
You might say—many commentators have said—that with the quick Vatican smackdown of Cardinal Sarah's proposal for ad orientem worship, Rome has spoken and the case is closed. I disagree. On the contrary, Cardinal Sarah has reopened a much-needed discussion about how to...
Quick Hits: Building a cathedral, single-handed
Thomas Van, who is currently fulfilling a different set of obligations overseas, has not lost his knack for finding intriguing Catholic points of interest on the web. The other day, he sent me a link to a brief video about a 90-year-old man who has been building a cathedral in Spain, essentially...
Ad Orientem: the battle continues
Cardinal Robert Sarah remains the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship: the Vatican’s top liturgical official. So his suggestion that priests should celebrate Mass ad orientem must be taken seriously, even if (as the Vatican press office so helpfully noted) it is not a...
Ad Orientem: Thoughts on debating the non-essential
When it comes to discussions of the liturgy, some readers find my viewpoint appalling, while others regard it as a breath of fresh air. The reason is fairly simple: I have an extremely “intellectual” piety, which means I find nearly every liturgical form and setting to be a distraction...
Celebrating for Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Due to my foot surgeries two years in a row, our family has been sidelined again this summer. We usually travel near the Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel to my husband’s hometown to participate in the Mount Carmel festival, sponsored by the Italian parish Our Lady of Mount...
Quick Hits: Analyzing Trump and the Democrats, questioning Vatican support for internationalism
First Things is not a political journal, yet in the past week the magazine has provided me with two of the most insightful perspectives on a bewildering American presidential race. Matthew Schmitz reminds readers that the religious outlook of Donald Trump was formed by Rev. Norman Vincent...
Imitating St. Camillus: Beginning with Charity
This post was originally published in July 2015.
July 18 is in the USA the Optional Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis. On the General Roman Calendar his feast is July 14, but in the USA that is the Obligatory Memorial of St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Making religion matter again
The statistics out of Germany are very sad. 180,000 Germans left the Catholic Church last year. But over and above those baptized as infants, fewer than 10,000 entered the Church. Yet Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich insists that the Church in Germany is “a strong force, whose message is...
Gänswein’s mark of Cain, and what it teaches about Catholic renewal
In a recent interview, Archbishop Georg Gänswain said many Germans view him as having the “mark of Cain” because of his loyalty to Pope Benedict and his service to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He therefore believes it is highly unlikely that he would...
Summer Cookouts and Party Politics
Here we go again. As we enter the season for the national political conventions in preparation for the November vote we will once again witness how our politicians-– in large part reflecting the views of the populace-– view the abortion or pro-life “issue.” (Incidentally referring to the question...
The only way to restore public confidence in Catholic bishops
The revelation that the apostolic nuncio in Washington quashed an investigation into the alleged misconduct of an American archbishop is another damaging blow to the wounded credibility of the Catholic hierarchy. Nearly fifteen years after the sex-abuse scandal destroyed public confidence in the...
Is your family life an adequate school of marriage for your kids? Think about this now.
Have you had the facts-of-life discussion with your kids? If so, it is just one step along the way. Even more important is giving them the formation they need to properly approach relationships with the opposite sex, including dating, courtship and matrimony. Ideally, sound parental attitudes...
First Celebration of the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene
Today the Church celebrates for the first time the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, July 22. Previously this was an obligatory memorial, but last month the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments elevated the...
Where can American Catholics turn after the Trump ascendancy?
“Donald Trump is manifestly unfit to be president of the United States.” So wrote a number of prominent scholars and journalists in An Appeal to Our Fellow Catholics, issued back in March. They made a strong case: His campaign has already driven our politics down to new levels of...
Even mercy can be built on sand. Here’s how to tell.
On the whole, the renewed emphasis on mercy since the pontificate of John Paul II is a very good thing. There was a danger in mid-twentieth century piety of falling into a “who’s in and who’s out” sort of spirituality, with an emphasis on the righteousness of “good...
Please don't call it 'senseless' violence
The latest atrocity by the Islamic State—the brutal murder of an elderly priest, carried out during the holy Sacrifice of the Mass—was not a senseless act. Abominable, yes. Disgusting, surely. But senseless? No. It was premeditated. It was intentional. It was part of a larger...
Will this murder fuel a French Catholic revival?
How will France react to the murder of Father Jacques Hamel? I don’t mean the country’s political leaders, who will naturally condemn this brutal act of violence. I mean the ordinary people of France: a country that was once a great bastion of Catholicism, and is now so thoroughly...
If not a religious war, what is it?
Secularists routinely ignore—or worse, deny—the influence of religious beliefs on political affairs. So when secular leaders like President Obama deny that terrorists are inspired by Islam, I can almost understand. But when Pope Francis makes essentially the same claim, I am...
Ad Majorem [fill-in-the-blank] Gloriam
Much has been made, these last few days, about the Jesuit training of Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee. What does his Jesuit education tell us? Elizabeth Drescher has something to tell us. Drescher is the author of Choosing Our Religion: the Spiritual Lives of...
Cardinal Burke's 'unhelpful' suggestion
In his interview-book Hope for the World, Cardinal Raymond Burke makes the (accurate) observation that Islam envisions a state governed by Islamic law. “In reality, there is no place for other religions, even though they maybe tolerated,” he says. This does not sit well with some...
Abortion and deportation: not morally equivalent
Explaining why he believes that neither the Democratic nor the Republican party deserves Catholic votes, Bishop Daniel Flores sets out a sound moral premise, but then jumps from it to an unwarranted conclusion. Bishop Flores, you may recall, finds the Democrats unacceptable because they favor...
Pelosi and Pelosi's God
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a PBS audience this week that white male voters have been stupid: They voted against their own economic interests because of guns, because of gays, and because of God: the three G’s. God being the woman’s right to choose. That last sentence is stunning, isn’t...
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