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All Catholic commentary from April 2025
Is Catholic Charities really Catholic? (Don’t ask the Supreme Court)
The state of Wisconsin found that the activities of the Catholic Charities Bureau are indistinguishable from those of any other secular charity. Is that true? The Supreme Court seemed disinclined to examine that question. Catholic donors might think differently.
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Why young Catholics are rejecting feminism, Pt. 2: The magisterium
Catholic feminists are seldom willing to engage seriously with the full scope of Church teaching on their favorite issues, like authority in marriage and mothers working outside the home. Instead, they quote the same snippets of St. John Paul II, but do not read him carefully in continuity with prior popes. Thus they inevitably feel frustrated that young tradition-seeking Catholics aren’t getting with the feminist program.
Living in the end times does not give us a pass
For me the issue is to find more effective ways of evangelizing among Christians no longer used to evangelizing. Moreover, we must also understand that—while we should certainly engage in evangelization—some periods and places do seem to be largely impervious to the Gospel until there have been a good many martyrs. As Tertullian put it about 1800 years ago, the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church. Our Lord put this another way: “For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’”
A word to the anti-Trump protesters and their media enablers
Whatever assumption of good faith might have been extended to your arguments against this or that Trump policy, there is going to be a heck of a lot less of it this time around.
Groupthink Follies
We find groupthink throughout the Scriptures. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of unnatural and malignant groupthink. Groupthink during the Exodus rebelled against Moses and the Lord.
USCCB to Trump: You can’t fire me; I quit
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the USCCB president, said that the decision to end these programs was “heartbreaking.” But the bishops really didn’t have to make a choice at all; the decision had been made for them.
Crucifixion darkness: Barabbas (1961)
Barabbas, a unique specimen of the midcentury Hollywood Biblical epic, stars Anthony Quinn as the criminal released by Pilate in place of Christ. It follows Barabbas through a long life in the shadow of the Cross, haunted and struggling to comprehend the meaning of having had his life exchanged for Christ’s. He becomes almost an archetype of human resistance to grace—but in the end, does he nonetheless surrender himself to what he doesn’t understand?
Easter volume released: Free ebook
The Easter volume of our ebook series for this liturgical year has been released in our ebooks download area. This fourth volume in the annual series covers the entire Easter season, from the Easter Vigil through Pentecost. It may be downloaded free of charge in the following formats: .mobi (Kindle), .epub (Nook and other standard ereaders), and .pdf (most computer devices).
5.8 St. Anselm of Canterbury: Doctor of the Atonement
St. Anselm (1033 - 1109 AD) was Abbot of the monastery of Bec, and later, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the first of the medieval scholastics, and the first real systematic theologian. In many ways, St. Anselm is the bridge between St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.
Rule of St. Benedict—Ep. 1 | Foundations of Monastic Life
"And so we are going to establish a school for the service of the Lord. In founding it we hope to introduce nothing harsh or burdensome. But if a certain strictness results… do not be at once dismayed and fly from the way of salvation, whose entrance cannot but be narrow."
194—The Church’s Hour of Testing—Fr. Donald Haggerty
A great spiritual master of our time, Fr. Donald Haggerty, joins the podcast to discuss his important new book, The Hour of Testing: Spiritual Depth and Insight in a Time of Ecclesial Uncertainty. He offers profound reflections on the ongoing, and perhaps future, crisis within the Church, with an eye to arousing an appetite for the greater spiritual intensity God desires his faithful to live out in this time.
An economic interpretation of the Gospel
Matthew recounts incidents or images that do not appear in the other gospels. And that only make sense, he remarks, because the “ambitious tax collector—if he was familiar with Roman best practices of accounting, banking, and contracts—would be well placed to see the power of these economic analogies.”
The Pope as (im)patient
No doubt other Vatican officials would have argued against his surprise visit to St. Peter’s basilica, and at a minimum insisted that the Pontiff be dressed in his usual regalia. And no doubt the Pope knew that. So he made the excursion without consulting anyone; he took the whole Vatican by surprise.
Beware! The spiritual paradox of not being “everybody”
Whenever Church discipline from the next higher level has been lax, a great many Catholic leaders have made their livings preaching a reconditioned gospel with which the world can resoundingly agree. An even greater number of lay people have commended this practice, though it has never been a source of numerical growth—indeed, quite the opposite. There is great danger in trying to be like everybody else.
Why young Catholics are rejecting feminism, Pt. 3: The feminist echo chamber
Even in their “Catholic” forms, feminism and masculinism exacerbate division between the sexes. This can happen by outright hostility, but also more subtly, with the drifting apart of concerns and mutual defensiveness that result from prioritizing the advancement of one sex. As Ratzinger wrote, “The proper condition of the male-female relationship cannot be a kind of mistrustful and defensive opposition. Their relationship needs to be lived in peace and in the happiness of shared love.”
Breaking Habits of Self-Deification
Pilate’s skeptical and cynical remark echoes throughout history: “What is truth?” (Jn. 18:38) The question forms the crossroads of every human path.
The Eucharist: the ultimate reality
The Eucharistic Sacrifice, extended through time and space in the celebration of the Mass, completes Christ’s work of salvation, and thereby brings meaning to our lives. And when we neglect the historical reality of that Sacrifice, we immediately endanger our own understanding of human existence.
Entering the Paschal Triduum
How to follow the Paschal Triduum at home and church with traditions for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Includes liturgy, recipes, printables, paschal candle, eggs, lamb cake, foot washing.
Ghosts of the Chrism Mass
As the Mass unfolded, I gazed upon the young and old heads and remembered the many priests I saw when I was young, but who have gone away. They are ghosts.
Good Friday, good news, and the young
In terms of overall numbers, the situation for the Catholic Church is still pretty dire. But something is happening. And I’m struck by how much of it is motivated by the same things that motivated me forty years ago.
5.9 St. Anselm of Canterbury: Father of Scholasticism
St. Anselm (1033 - 1109 AD) was Abbot of the monastery of Bec, and later, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the first of the medieval scholastics, and the first real systematic theologian. His treatise, Cur Deus Homo brought together biblical and patristic themes related to salvation and the atonement to provide the Church with a comprehensive (up to that point) teaching on the Incarnation and the Atonement, known as the Satisfaction Theory of Atonement.
Whether or Not We Like It, Christ is Risen
We believers, atheists and Christians, share the same turmoil in life.. But those of us who actively believe in the Resurrection (and are keenly aware of our responsibilities before God) are less likely to view the world with paralyzing desperation than those with the pious and irrational hope that death ends it all. We fear God, not the actuarial tables.
Jubilation in Rome’s Eternity
To celebrate Rome today is to toast its secular and sacred histories for all their respective glories, respective failures, and the many conflicts between them. To do so in this Jubilee Year is to rejoice in the enduring power of the divine over finite secular might.
A pontificate marked by contradictions
In his most startling statements, Pope Francis never directly contradicted established Catholic doctrine. But by raising questions about previous teachings, and then remaining silent while more radical clerics proclaimed a change in doctrine, he undermined the traditional teachings.
Pope Francis’s Funeral and Tomb Showcase His Legacy
Tombs of popes and other heads of state do not merely hold the rulers’ earthly remains. They convey how the rulers wish to be remembered. They can also express other messages to posterity, typically ones that the rulers held most dear.
Facts—and fictions—about the papal interregnum
Is Cardinal Farrell the acting head of the universal Church during the interregnum? No.
The real Pope Francis Effect
Did we leverage the world’s affection for Pope Francis to evangelize it for the sake of the gospel? Or did the weirder aspects of the Francis pontificate drive us so batty that we instead wasted our energy fighting each other?
195—The Most Influential Theology Book Nobody Reads—Philipp Rosemann
The standard textbook of theology in medieval universities was the Sentences by Peter Lombard, bishop of Paris from 1095-1160. For almost four centuries, those seeking higher credentials in theology had to study, teach, and comment on Lombard’s Sentences. It was formative for the likes of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure.
Easter: Leaving Egypt
We cannot “renounce the world” out of sheer negativity; we must trust something else more in order to break that attachment.
The Bureaucracies of the Global Church
As with any extensive organization, the institutional Church’s struggle with sinful, inefficient, and wasteful Church bureaucracies is ongoing. It extends from the Vatican through diocesan chanceries and to parishes.... But we do not worship Church leaders
New Institute for Liturgical Formation begins this Summer (2025)
Beginning this summer, the Institute will offer twelve courses in liturgical studies over a three-year cycle, held each year during two consecutive two-week sessions during the month of July. The program emphasizes magisterial fidelity; theological richness based on Scripture, Thomistic theology and Catholic tradition; and daily worship, a common life and participation in liturgical preparation.
Trump is wrong on IVF—support restorative fertility instead
By any fair accounting, IVF fails on ethics, costs, health preservation, harm to women and children and even personal inconvenience. In addition to combatting the immorality of IVF, citizens should demand that the White House Domestic Policy Council conduct an open and fair process applying objective measures to both IVF and restorative fertility approaches. For both moral and pragmatic reasons, it is restorative fertility, not IVF, which deserves our support.
An orthodox reading of “mutual subjection” in marriage
Pope St. John Paul II's discussion of "mutual subjection" in Ephesians 5 must not be interpreted in such a way as to flatten marriage, nullifying the authority of the husband and the obedience of the wife. Nor should it be thought that John Paul II intended to overturn the way the Church has understood this passage for 2,000 years.
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