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All Catholic commentary from November 2025
May They Rest in Peace—If Applicable
Our prayer intentions do not apply if the person is already in heaven (unlikely) or in the other place (who are we to judge?). When a person dies, the default presumptive interim destination is Purgatory, as a necessary and happy spiritual bus stop on our way to heaven. God redirects His graces if we’re off target. Since the truth of Jesus.
Differences in piety: A new book on St. Joseph
I instinctively find Joseph more helpful if I conceive of him as sometimes having to struggle spiritually—if I presume that he was not totally confirmed in grace as Our Lady was, that he was “Joseph the Just” because he heard God’s call and overcame his reluctance to follow it just as we must do. Though I may be wrong, I prefer a Joseph who understood that it took not just an acceptance of suffering to do God’s will but that manly courage which challenges doubt itself.
Why now? The Vatican’s odd ‘clarification’ of Marian piety
Well, if the DDF has set out to eliminate confusion and restore clarity, there were other, bigger fish to fry. Why not an answer to the dubia? Or the Vatican’s doctrinal office might give us a clear definition of what the word “synodality” actually means.
Revisiting Malick’s A Hidden Life (2019)
James, Thomas, and Nathan Douglas conclude their journey through Terrence Malick's filmography (thus far) with a discussion of the film that introduced him to many Catholics: A Hidden Life, about the Austrian martyr Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, who was killed for refusing to swear loyalty to Hitler. Coming after Malick's avant-garde phase of the Weightless Trilogy, A Hidden Life is a more conventional narrative but retains much of the stylistic and formal development of his past few films.
I changed my mind about Kevin Roberts. Here’s why.
Is the continuing animosity toward Roberts for his admitted error in the Tucker/Fuentes matter really a proxy for neocon dissatisfaction with Heritage’s Trumpy direction under Roberts?
Heresy Type Indicator: Manichaeism
God has no opposite. God has absolute dominion. He reigns over heaven and earth, matter and spirit, light and darkness alike.
Should mothers work outside the home? w/ Margaret H. McCarthy
Should mothers work outside the home? Margaret McCarthy discusses her essay on why the anti-sex-discrimination regime’s treatment of the sexes as interchangeable hurts real women, real men, and real children. Then we dive into the neglected teachings of John Paul II and earlier popes on the differing relationships that men and women have to the home and to work outside the home.
5.23 St. John Henry Newman: The Convert Doctor
St. John Henry Newman (1801 - 1890) was an Anglican priest and Oxford scholar who reasoned his way into the Catholic Church, with the help of the Church fathers. He spent the first part of his life and career as a Protestant, but once a Catholic, he made a lasting and significant contribution to Catholic thought and apologetics.
A veteran’s haunting question: Was his sacrifice worth it?
The old World War II veteran said, with obvious emotion: “What we fought for was our freedom. Even now it’s a darn sight worse than it was when I fought for it.”
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