Commentary
Pope Leo insists: Christ comes first, not human strategies
Pope Leo last Sunday: Brothers and sisters, let us together ask Mary, Queen of Martyrs, to help us be faithful and courageous witnesses of her Son in every circumstance, and to sustain our brothers and sisters who suffer for the faith today.
Will Trump go to heaven?
If Trump succeeds in bringing an end to the war in Ukraine, that achievement will not win him a place in heaven. But it certainly won’t hurt his chances.
A Catholic pedigree for magic and Hermeticism? (excerpt from our recent essay)
A condensed excerpt of the 33-page essay “Hermetic Tradition or Catholic Tradition? A Critique of Sebastian Morello," by Thomas Mirus, Matthew Minerd, and Matthew Scarince.
A rare victory for fraternal correction
A bishop is a member of a college—the college of bishops—and while is not subject to the authority of an episcopal conference, he is subject to moral suasion, to fraternal correction.
Tribal Adjectives
Old Catholic catechisms had instructive images of the Mystical Body of Christ. In cartoon graphics, we see Jesus with His arms extended to embrace the whole world. The sketch often exhibits a myriad of images that make up His garment, and include faces of every race and nation. The Church rises above every tribe and nation. The Church is the Way, the way of life. The Church is universal. The Church is Catholic.
On the demise of Our Sunday Visitor
As a publishing empire, Our Sunday Visitor was essentially the Catholic equivalent of Christianity Today. They had a whole family of magazines under one umbrella. What lesson should we take away from its demise?
At the Vatican, too, personnel is policy
Several Curial leaders are well beyond the retirement age (75), and overdue for replacement. Pope Leo may choose to leave them in place, but their resignations are already on his desk and it would be no surprise if he accepted them.
Hermetic Tradition or Catholic Tradition? A Critique of Sebastian Morello
Aside from his disturbing promotion of magic and the Hermetic tradition, Morello’s critique of “rationalism” in the Church, while containing some truth, is ultimately in service of mere counter-revolution rather than Catholic tradition. His historical narratives bypass the Church’s tradition as it has actually grown and developed over the centuries. Likewise, his problematic claims about the modern Church call into question whether the visible hierarchical Church has much remaining value at all.
Did “Vatican II” really trigger a decline in Catholic practice?
It is no wonder, of course, that the ongoing reception of the Council was characterized by an enormous secularization among Catholics, a problem that did not really begin to be corrected in earnest until Pope St. John Paul II moved to regain control of the “conciliar narrative” at the Synod of Bishops held in 1985, some twenty years after the Council had promulgated its papally-approved texts.
Our civilization’s death wish
We dote on our children. We want what is best for them. But we don’t want any MORE children. And paradoxically, that may be what would be best for them, and for us.
5.17 St. Albert the Great: Universal Doctor
St. Albert the Great (1206-1280) was one of the real geniuses of the middle ages, and was the teacher and mentor of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Albert had mastered virtually every field of study available to him, and he is one of the most important bridges between ancient and medieval philosophy.
St. John Henry Newman—The Oxford Sermons | 3. Evangelical Sanctity the Completion of Natural Virtue
"The true light of the world offends more men than it attracts; and its divine origin is shown, not in its marked effects on the mass of mankind, but in its surprising power of elevating the moral character where it is received in spirit and in truth."
The Confessional Echo Chamber of Verbal Articulation
We often hear, “I don’t need to go to a priest for Confession because I confess my sins directly to God.” Good for you! Statistically, I can’t bring myself to believe the many who make the claim.
St. Thomas on why hierarchy is good for everyone
Hierarchy does not just mean that some things are better than others, but that there is an ordered relation between higher and lower: "the perfection of divine providence requires that it should reduce the excess of certain things over others to a suitable order. And this is done by allowing those who have less to benefit from the superabundance of others."
About those annual Aug. 6th Hiroshima posts
Here’s what I’d like to say to the perpetrators of the annual August 6th Catholic Facebook beatdowns. Give that poor guy a rest. Let him drink his beer in peace
Our own personal love is not as good as the love of Christ
The primary human problem is that despite God’s astoundingly generous plan of salvation, we are all prone to put what we see as our immediate particular problems or desires ahead of the deeper quest to understand why we remain both so restless and so wayward. But the only thing that stills that restlessness and waywardness long enough to provide a positive orientation to our lives is the love of God as it is typically manifested through those who have already sought to draw close to Him.
A Rocker and a Doctor Meet in Birmingham
Cardinal Newman and Ozzy Osbourne have more in common than Birmingham. They are both products of the Via Media that the Church of England once purported to be. They both showed by their vastly different lives that this middle way is not viable. Newman took the high road and became Catholic. Osbourne took the low road against which Newman spent his career warning. The rocker shows the doctor’s work, still poignantly relevant, is still needed to bind the wounds of doubt that debilitate the modern age.
Sister of heroic Vietnamese Cardinal imprisoned by Communists tells his story
Elisabeth Nguyen Thi Thu Hong joins the podcast to tell the inspiring story of her older brother, Venerable Francis-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, the heroic Vietnamese Cardinal who was imprisoned by the Communists for 13 years, 8 of those in solitary confinement. Thuan was descended from a line of Vietnamese martyrs, and his uncle was the devout Catholic President and Prime Minister of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, who himself was something of a martyr.
The perils of working for the Church
Those who work for the Church—whether as lay employees or in sacred ministry—serve at the whim of their ecclesiastical superiors. They may be dismissed or reinstated, silenced or promoted, irrespective of past performance.
Principles and Prudential Judgments
We may try to defy the law, but gravity will always win. Rocket science only works by taking into account the law of gravity. So it is with morality.
Thoughts on Newman’s new honor
St. John Henry Newman has been an inspiration for us at Catholic Culture for years, and even an official part of our mission since the day he was canonized in 2019.
Just-war thinking: a Substack Seminar
In leading Just War seminars for college students and in countless discussions with colleagues and friends, I’ve found that this topic never fails to stimulate lively debate.
The Studied Silence of American Catholic Conservatives
Israel’s demand for “no moral equivalence” is either irrelevant or mischievous. It is irrelevant if it means Israel has a right to defend itself. She does, and she doesn’t need a slogan to justify a just response. But it is mischievous if Israel uses it to justify overwhelming and indiscriminate violence.
Ousted Vatican auditor: ‘I need to speak to the Pope!’
During his term as auditor, Milone reveals, he sent 15 reports to Vatican prosecutors, providing evidence of wrongdoing. “On how many did they act?” he asks rhetorically, before answering his own question: “None.”
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?
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