Commentary
Israel, Palestine, and Jason Jones
No reasonable person could disagree that the Palestinians have suffered terribly and that it is wrong to deny their humanity. But does that somehow put them above criticism? Or disagreement?
The under-the-radar growth of Catholic commitment
Most Americans think the Catholic faith is losing public influence, and no wonder. The overall statistics look grim. But they aren’t noticing the emergence of what then-Cardinal Ratzinger famously termed a “creative minority” of dedicated faithful Catholics.
5.12 St. Hildegard of Bingen: Multimedia Visionary
St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a visionary, teacher, Abbess, composer, theologian, painter, and the first woman in history to be given papal approval to preach in public. Four centuries before the emergence of the “Renaissance Man,” there was Hildegard of Bingen. Usually known mostly for her music (and rightfully so) there is so much more to this medieval mystic.
St. Francis: Spinning, off balance, but onto a new path
If we must twirl around and even fall down at times, so be it. But let us at least learn the one thing needful—that is, to pray our way through the spin, listening only for the Master’s voice even in our own dizziness. For only at Christ’s command, through whatever messenger He sends, will we end up facing the way we are to go.
Will this be an ‘ordinary’ pontificate?
Maybe now we should be prepared for an “ordinary” pontificate. The trouble is, not many of us are old enough to know what that means.
197—Same-Sex Attraction and Conversion w/ Andrew Comiskey & Marco Casanova
Today’s guests both have a background with same-sex attraction, and yet are each now married with children. Andrew Comiskey and Marco Casanova run Desert Stream and Living Waters Ministries, which for decades have offered help to Christians seeking healing from sexual disorders (including but not limited to SSA). This conversation offers solid, spiritually sound, experience-based answers to some disputed questions about how the Church should be pastoring those with same-sex attraction.
Forks in the Road
The birthday of the Church fulfills one of the loveliest phrases in Revelation: “Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.” (Psalm 104)
St. John Henry Newman—The Indwelling Spirit
"The Comforter who has come instead of Christ, must have vouchsafed to come in the same sense in which Christ came... by a real and personal visitation."
What Musk vs. Trump means for Catholics and for Vance
Vance hasn’t spoken a word about the Musk/Trump split as I write this column. But you know it’s coming. So let’s get out ahead of it and have that conversation now.
Understanding Pope Leo, bit by bit
Pope Leo does not need to draw the obvious inference: Insofar as Amoris Laetitia allowed for admitting divorced and remarried Catholics to Communion, it is an aberration.
Should there be “performances” in Church?
A church is not one of the seven sacraments; it is not a ritual instituted by Christ to give grace. But it is both the normal locus for these sacraments, and is itself sacramental in the sense of an outward sign—the extraordinary housing and atmosphere, so to speak—within which the grace of Christ is intended to be communicated.
Occult subversion of traditional Catholicism
A prominent traditionalist Catholic press has published a book advocating the practice of "Hermetic magic", equating Catholic spiritual practices with magic words and talismans. More generally, among some traditionalist intellectuals there is an increasing interest in the occult, magic, and esoteric spiritual traditions. This is rooted in a philosophy called perennialism, which holds that the various great world religions have passed down the same essential wisdom from a single ancient source.
The Ritual portrays exorcism accurately, but is stuck in genre cliches
The new exorcism film The Ritual, starring Al Pacino and Dan Stevens, is based on the famous 1928 exorcism of Emma Schmidt, which also partially inspired The Exorcist. The Ritual is touted as more realistic and meticulously researched than most exorcism films, and it avoids many of the worst pitfalls of exorcism movies. However, the film is still sensationalistic, and flattens interesting real-life details to fit the genre’s cliches.
Small is Beautiful
War-related PTSD has become depressingly common. As we carefully reserve judgment subject to the facts, in many cases, a significant cause of PTSD is likely a gnawing sense of personal responsibility for unjust killings in war that violate the Fifth Commandment.
Now available: Liturgical year ebook for Ordinary Time after Easter
We have just released the fifth volume in the 2024-2025 Liturgical Year series of ebooks. Volume five covers the first half of the long stretch of Ordinary Time between the close of the Easter Season on Pentecost and the beginning of Advent. Like all CatholicCulture.org ebooks, this volume is downloadable free of charge.
Why support for same-sex marriage is declining
"How would same-sex marriage affect you?" People couldn’t answer that question ten or twenty years ago. They can answer it now. And they don’t like the answers.
Ages of ages
President John Tyler, who was born in the 18th century, had a grandson who survived well into the 21st.
Bishop Martin and personal liturgical preferences
If I were a bishop, I would want to take very seriously the objections of those who are appalled by an over-simplified and lock-step “modern” liturgical uniformity, which many see as a genuine impoverishment despite the legitimately noble simplicity of the Roman Rite. It would seem prudent to thoroughly examine the reasons for this rather than to treat the many millions of Catholics who remain devoted to the Latin Mass as obstacles to liturgical “progress”.
Pope Leo XIII: inequality is a fundamental law of nature
According to Pope Leo XIII, one of the most fundamental laws of nature is inequality of perfection, resulting necessarily in inequalities of power and authority.
A North Carolina bishop threatens a full-scale ‘liturgy war’
Bishop Martin insults past generations when he writes: “Our ancestors ‘heard’ the Mass in Latin every Sunday but never understood it.” Should we then conclude that only in the late 20th century did Catholics begin to understand the Mass?
The Challenge of Eucharistic Catechesis
Bold and creative events are necessary to spark Eucharistic faith, but their success hinges upon inspired liturgical and catechetical practices that take place daily and weekly, year after year. Repetitio est mater studiorum, for the Eucharist as for anything else.
5.11 St. Bernard of Clairvaux: Arbiter of Christendom
St. Bernard of Claivaux (1090 - 1153 AD) was the founder of the Cistercians, a reform order of the Benedictines, and was one of the Church’s true mystics. He opposed the “intentionalism” of the heretic Peter Abelard with his quip: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” He also opposed an anti-pope, corrected a king, brokered peace in Europe, and had to nuance the doctrine of “just war” in the face of Christian losses in the Crusades.
196—Theology of Hiking—Fr. John Nepil
Fr. John Nepil, priest and mountaineer, joins the podcast to discuss his book To Heights and Unto Depths: Letters from the Colorado Trail. Topics discussed include: --The modern view of "nature" vs. God's creation --A morally responsible approach to risk-taking --The modern origins of hiking as a secular activity --"Wilderness" vs. "garden" - Catholic attitudes toward the wild places
Who am I?
The Ascension and the departure of the visible presence of Jesus is not a sorrowful mystery. The Ascension is a glorious manifestation of the Incarnation that continues with our cooperation as His instruments.
Anti-semitic murders and the 5th anniversary of George Floyd riots
That is the ideology powering both the George Floyd riots of 2020 and the massacre of Israelis three years later and the murder of that young couple this week. America and Israel both deserve destruction, it is claimed, because we are both guilty of “settler colonialism.” Supporters of Israel, such as that couple, likewise deserve death according to that line of reasoning.
The key to the Church’s success in this world
As a mere matter of demographics, a Christless Church is an empty Church, and therefore a Church which creates no useful constituency even for the better management of this world’s affairs. For mere demographic reasons, it makes no sense for the Church to emphasize anything in this world without first attending to the conversion and expansion of her own effective membership. But this is not the only problem, for when even good ends are sought without reference to Christ, they are always sought in vain.
Warning: Fake News
As more and more people rely on the internet for their news, in the Wild West of blogs, podcasts, and social media, fraudulent stories spread quickly.
Solzhenitsyn as prophet
Like most prophets, unfortunately, he is unpopular—unpopular especially among the self-appointed arbiters of popular opinion, who resent his indictment of their shallow thinking.
Imagine
You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us—in the Land of the Ten Commandments.
Eight reasons why I like Leo
Someone needs to give Cardinal Dolan a medal for his role in healing the universal Church after an awkward pontificate. Dolan told a Sunday morning talk show, just before the Conclave, that he wanted a Pope who would combine the outreach of Francis with the clarity of John Paul II and Benedict. That is what we now have in Pope Leo.
Want more commentary? Visit the Archives.
