Commentary
Data show: Vatican II triggered decline in Catholic practice
This working paper is a product of economic research, prepared by experts analyzing statistical data. Unlike many other contributors to the arguments about the effects of Vatican II, the NBER authors show no interest in intramural Catholic arguments. They don’t have a dog in that fight
The Splendor of the Liturgical Year
Summer is the season of growth, and the green vestments of Ordinary Time remind us that our faith, like field grass, imperceptibly grows with our devotion.
Family life: The ultimate school of faith and holiness
Of paramount importance in raising a family is the proper Catholic education of children. It is almost always literally worse than useless to send our children off to secular schools, and even secular universities, which are in our days effectively designed to destroy in their students any belief in God, commitment to truth, or life of prayer. If we want them to reach heaven, we must ensure an authentic Catholic education for our children, and not just a nominal one.
We are on the team that’s winning
Whence came all this winning? How did that happen? Who created that space?
Archbishop Weisenburger and the episcopal double standard
Is Archbishop Weisenburger acting quickly, to present the Catholic world with faits accomplis before Pope Leo weighs in with what might be moderating directives? Or is he acting in full confidence that the new Pope will approve his moves?
Just-war thinking: an answer to George Weigel
When we “let slip the dogs of war,” we accept the likelihood that many people—including our own—will be killed, maimed, or scarred for life, that families will be shattered, property destroyed, vulnerable people neglected or exploited. Any sane person, not to mention any Christian, approaches a foreign-policy crisis with the understanding that war is undesirable.
5.16 St. Anthony of Padua: Hammer of Heresy
St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) is actually called the Hammer of Heretics, but the truth is that even in his uncompromising critiques of heresy, he had compassion for those who were led astray by the heresies, and he refused to engage in the personal attacks and name-calling that are so prevalent in apologetics, even among some other saints. So his homiletical hammer, as it were, was aimed more at the heresies than at the heretics.
Soul of the Apostolate—Ep. 2—Union of Active & Interior Life
"The life of action ought to flow from the contemplative life, to interpret and extend it, outside oneself, though at the same time being detached from it as little as possible."
Celibacy is better than marriage—don’t be threatened by this truth
Hierarchy is not the only truth that matters—equality has its place too—but it is one without which the order of the universe and the right ordering of our lives are unintelligible. Embracing it is essential to destroy pride, the principal vice of the modern world. It strikes at the heart of Satan’s resentment against God, and the reason our first parents fell. We cannot downplay it without consigning ourselves to spiritual mediocrity, or worse.
200—Moral Questions about NFP w/ Eamonn Clark
NFP is often taught without the necessary context of Catholic teaching on the right use of marital relations, practically encouraging venial sin through an excessive use of the marital act unsubordinated to its proper end. Moral theologian Eamonn Clark has written a groundbreaking study of the ethical issues related to NFP - the first such book since the 1940s. He begins a necessary conversation which will encourage married couples to seek the asceticism necessary for growth in holiness.
The Ten-Point Plan to Overcome Hyperactivity
We are God’s handiwork. We discover our dignity by surrendering ourselves to His loving providence in our encounter with Jesus in the Sacraments. Our cooperation is reasonable
Motives of credibility and predispositions to faith
These motives of credibility are just that: Not proofs but motives, that is, realities that attract us in ways that may induce us to look more carefully into the nature and claims of Christ and the Church. For most people, such motives—such movements of attraction—play an important role in stimulating interest and bridging the gap between vaguely knowing something about Catholicism and taking it seriously enough to look into it more deeply.
Through years of scandal, has the Vatican learned nothing?
Every year, especially around the time of the Peter’s Pence collection, Vatican officials assure us that now--this time--they are really determined to eradicate the corruption. Trust us, they complacently admonish the faithful. At this point, why should we?
A hard world for little things: The Night of the Hunter (1955)
James and Thomas discuss one of their favorite films, The Night of the Hunter, directed by Charles Laughton. It’s about the sacred innocence of children, and discerning true vs. false prophets. A unique mix of fairy tale, horror, and Southern gothic with expressionist visuals, The Night of the Hunter contains some of the most striking and poetic sequences ever filmed.
Hell, yes!
If we are not called to repentance—if instead we are encouraged to presume on God’s mercy—why bother to repent and confess our sins? Msgr. Pope remarks: “People who think they are well don’t go to the doctor.”
Superman: controversy and faith
When liberal defenders of today’s comic book superheroes say the comics have always been Woke, what they really mean is that the comics have always been liberal. But Woke is a whole different level.
Subsidiarity, Charity, and the Good Samaritan
The all-too-common tendency of clericalism neglects to include the laity as essential members of the Mystical Body of Christ... On the other hand, lay supremacy reduces the ministerial priesthood to a kind of pious trinket.
Apologetics alone is never enough
Being aware of the basic arguments is not enough. A great many people throughout Christian history have had at least a general idea of the nature of the overall argument for Christ, even though the vast majority have not been taken through it in any sort of systematic way. No matter how strong the logical arguments are for the Divinity of Christ and His foundation of the Catholic Church, very few people care enough to wonder seriously whether any of this should change the way they live.
Praying for the ‘conversion’ of climate-change skeptics?
Notice here the bumptious confidence that natural disasters can be remedied, unlike the “acts of God” of the past—the implication that if governments take the appropriate actions, we could be spared from hurricanes and earthquakes.
5.15 St. Anthony of Padua: Doctor of the Gospel
St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) is called the Doctor of the Gospel, or the Evangelical Doctor, because he is known as both an expert in biblical interpretation, as well as one of the greatest preachers the Church has ever produced.
The US bishops denounce ‘the most significant pro-life law ever’
Rather than focus on the concrete achievement of cutting taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, Archbishop Broglio produced a fair copy of the vague rhetoric that Democratic lawmakers had used to denounce the Big Beautiful Bill.
God’s sarcasm, our credulity, and Christ’s Church
Sometimes we need to learn to distrust ourselves. (In this it helps to have a religious superior, or a wife!) A priest once told me that I had a streak of Protestant individualism in my personality that was potentially dangerous. I sometimes wonder if this has failed to prove deadly (or so I presume) only because the Church herself had so many people who advised going in the wrong direction when I was slithering toward adulthood in the late 1960s. If I was told to go one way, I went the other.
199—Pope Leo XIII on the restoration of Christian philosophy
This is the first in a series of episodes surveying the great encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII. In his third encylical, Aeterni Patris, Leo launched the Thomistic revival with a call for the restoration of Christian philosophy, which was then in a state of disrepair.
Leo XIII on the restoration of Christian philosophy
This is the first in a series of articles surveying the great encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII. In his third encylical, Aeterni Patris, Leo launched the Thomistic revival with a call for the restoration of Christian philosophy, which was then in a state of disrepair.
Preach Like Elmer Gantry
Whether a homily is interesting or boring, or muddles the distinction between Catholic principles and prudential judgements that belong to the laity, the priest, like the 72 disciples, prepares the way of Jesus.
Discerning the movie “Independence Day,” 28 years later
Are the coincidences in pop culture and real life really just coincidences? Or is there more going on here?
Soul of the Apostolate—Ep. 1—Active Works & the Interior Life
"If God calls me to apply my activity not only to my own sanctification, but also to good works, I must establish this firm conviction, before everything else, in my mind: Jesus has got to be, and wishes to be, the life of these works. My efforts, by themselves, are nothing, absolutely nothing."
Bureaucratic synodality vs. a style and an attitude
Most people would agree that either a new sense of mission is communicated by a good leader, or it doesn’t get communicated at all. Most often, mere meetings and reviews do not energize; they enervate. Meetings to create or receive “marching orders”, of course, can be very effective. But endless meetings for sharing and group-think are invariably time sinks, except for those participants who are seeking to use them to wrest control away from effective executives—such as bishops.
Stream of mercy: the forgotten feast of the Most Precious Blood
For over 100 years, the Church celebrated the feast of the Most Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in July. Then it fell victim of a strange irony: the post-Vatican II commission that was established for revising the liturgy, while seeking to implement Sacrosanctum Concilium 55 that admitted the faithful to receive the precious Blood of Christ at certain Masses, eliminated the feast of the Most Precious Blood. But we need not wait for the feast to be restored to receive its graces today.
Want more commentary? Visit the Archives.
