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It’s a popular pastime for Catholics to gripe about the music at their parishes. I should know because I was among those who did so. Instead of continuing the rich tradition of producing and preserving over a millennium of beautiful Catholic music, most parishes feature contemporary pop music (usually in the style of James Taylor … Read moreHow to Save the Music at Mass

British evolutionary biologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins has regrets about describing himself as a “cultural Christian” last year in an interview. “I imprudently said I was a ‘cultural Christian,’ and I haven’t heard the end of it,” wrote Dawkins in a recent piece for The Spectator. Though standing by his earlier comments—in which he … Read moreThe Limits of Our Anti-Woke Allies

In my last piece, I commented on how the more one looks under the hood of modern life, the more it seems nearly everything is not just poor quality—it’s anti-functional and even deeply fake. Without using the phrase, I was essentially pointing out how ripe the world is for “deep fakes” and how much of … Read moreReality Is Waiting: Un-fake Your Life This Year

During the past 60 years progressive Catholics have been engaged in an intense effort to remove from the Deposit of Faith beliefs and practices they find distasteful. Whether it be a rejection of the Real Presence or attempts to drop the teaching against artificial contraception, these Catholics have been hell-bent (literally) on transforming our faith … Read moreManipulating the Deposit of Faith

Don’t take the biggest cookie; just take the one that is closest to you on the plate. — Mom NOTWITHSTANDING this seemingly sage advice from my mother, it is my considered opinion that the cookie one ought to reach for … Continue reading → The post Only the Best appeared first on Catholicism.org. Read More

Last Sunday, all of the usual suspects gathered after Mass in the courtyard adjacent to our church. Beneath the warm glow of an outdoor heater, I stumbled into a conversation about the recent Joe Rogan podcast featuring Mel Gibson. The two-and-a-half-hour interview is a wild ride filled with discussions about dinosaurs, stem cells, the collapse … Read moreMel Gibson, Old School Sinner

Recently, the Italian bishops’ Episcopal Commission for the Clergy and Consecrated Life released “Orientations and Norms for Seminaries” a document that, among many other matters, addresses the seminary formation of men who experience same-sex attraction. The pertinent paragraph, 199, cites “The Gift of a Priestly Vocation” (hereafter “The Gift”), a 2016 Vatican document (which, in … Read moreReading Tea Leaves and Church Documents

The trouble with Manichaeism, some wag once wrote, is that it won’t let you eat a Big Mac. At least not without having to bear a load of guilt equal to the weight of the burger. Never mind, of course, that maybe even non-Manichees might not wish to eat one. In a world ruled by … Read moreThe Allure of Manichaeism

It generally isn’t charitable to say unkind things about people at their death. For me, that rule was especially challenging with the death of President Jimmy Carter a few weeks back. As a presidential historian who does much punditry, I dreaded Carter’s death because I knew I couldn’t avoid stating the obvious, namely, that he … Read moreGive Me Reagan’s “Ave Maria” Over Jimmy Carter’s “Imagine”

Gays online were hootin’ and hollerin’ last week when Anita Bryant died. They danced on her grave, as they are wont to do. You may not remember Anita Bryant. At a tender age, she won Arthur Godfrey’s Amateur Hour talent contest, a huge deal at the time. She went on to win Miss Oklahoma in … Read moreGay as an Object of Mirth?

The term “openness” is one of those flexible notions which, like those of “public order,” “good faith,” or “proportionality,” evade the exercise of definition. We know the important function of “standards” in legal technique. Legislators and judges deliberately use these words taken from ordinary language, the meaning of which varies according to the context and … Read moreThe Scandal of “Openness”

By this point, most people have heard of the term “nones,” which refers to religiously unaffiliated individuals who claim to be agnostic, atheist, or “nothing in particular.” Have you ever considered that religious disaffiliation might be the very first step a person might take on the path to getting trapped in occult practices? A 2023 … Read moreCould Religious Disaffiliation Drive People Toward Occult Practices?

On December 28, 2024, Fr. Tom Pringle observed on 𝕏, “I’ve been at my parish for about 3 years. What I’ve seen in that time is a resurgence in Catholics going to confession.” I am the pastor of a parish with about 900 families, and I echo what Fr. Pringle said. This past Advent, I … Read moreIs the Church Really Ready for Revival?

Wesley Smith is a pro-life bioethicist with the Discovery Institute who frequently writes in conservative publications like National Review. A recent essay was titled: “Assisted-Suicide Death Ceremonies Becoming Normalized.” People should not be surprised. In Canada, where getting a doctor to kill you (they call it “Medical Assistance in Dying,” MAID) has been legal since … Read more“Celebrating” Death?

Hail to the Chief we have chosen for the nation, Hail to the Chief! We salute you, one and all. Hail to the Chief, as we pledge cooperation, In proud fulfillment of a great, noble call. Yours is the aim … Continue reading → The post Inauguration Day and the United States appeared first on … Read moreInauguration Day and the United States

Last week on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Mel Gibson defended the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, bringing the Shroud into the public eye once again. He’s not the only one defending Christ’s burial cloth. Dr. John Campbell, a prominent YouTube commentator on medical topics—especially on malpractice inherent in the Covid vaccination regime—recently changed course to … Read moreA Spiritual Weapon for Our Time

A pollster once made the statement that he had found in his work that voters were “very stupid.” A colleague tried to defuse the remark by saying the issue was that people answered opinion poll questions, “in the context of their ignorance.” The phrase came to mind when I learned that President Carter had requested … Read moreLennon’s “Imagine” and Carter’s Ignorance

Adapted from Sr. Marie Gabrielle’s talk, “A Thousand Times Happy” The most famous missionary of all time after St. Paul, St. Francis Xavier, arrived in Japan as you would expect him to: poor, humble, meek, unassuming. And they ignored him. … Continue reading → The post The Fear of Having to Change appeared first on … Read moreThe Fear of Having to Change

Catholics don’t have much cause to go to the movies—and Robert Eggers’ remake of the classic silent film Nosferatu is at once an argument for and against this. Eggers presents a hauntingly beautiful film about horrifically ugly things and, in so doing, makes a compelling case to retain a spiritual center in a world where … Read moreNosferatu: Old-World Devils and New-World Victims

Britain is back in the news for its mishandled child gang rape scandals. This is a continuation of a crisis that has been ongoing in the U.K. since at least the year 2000. While many believe these to be decade-old crimes that now only need to be investigated and closed, it is much more likely … Read moreMuslim Rape Gangs As Religious Warfare

Whenever the Roman Canon of the Mass is celebrated, there is also a celebration of the saints, dozens of whom are invoked by the priest at the altar. Among these saints are seven women: Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Cecilia, Agnes, and Anastasia. These holy women were martyred during the third and fourth centuries and are … Read moreUnsung Heroines of the Early Church

President Trump has been trolling the Canadian government hard as of late about making Canada a new state; at least, we think he’s trolling… But his rhetoric has become more intense in recent days, with him claiming on Tuesday that he would acquire Canada by “economic force.” He stated this in response to a question … Read moreTrump’s Push for CanMerica: Is This for Real?

The newly appointed archbishop of Washington, D.C., Robert McElroy, says that the Church has learned more about human sexuality since the days of St. Paul and that, armed with this knowledge, we can now interpret Paul’s strictures against homosexual behavior as applying only to its abusive forms in ritual prostitution and pederasty but not to … Read moreSee No Evil

A few years ago, I did a deep dive on my Church History podcast on the Council of Trent, the great reform council that responded to the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Trained as an academic historian, I often come to historical questions thinking in terms of processes rather than events, of impersonal influences … Read moreA System Is What It Does: On Cardinal McElroy’s Appointment

It was in early 1943, while the war in Europe continued to rage, that a young woman named Simone Weil, who would not live to see its end, set down a series of reflections on the spiritual renewal that France, then under brutal occupation, would need to undergo once the Nazi menace had finally been … Read moreTelling Lies and Getting Away With It

However we greet his writings and thought, there is no denying Dietrich von Hildebrand’s historical status as a long-standing hero among Catholic opponents of Nazism. A philosopher who once speculated that each nation has its own unique guardian angel, Hildebrand nonetheless detested nationalism as a diabolical parody of patriotism; as the reader is no doubt … Read moreDietrich von Hildebrand and the Latin Mass

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s website, the initials of the FBI “might well be our motto, for those initials also represent the three things for which the Bureau and its representatives always stand: Fidelity – Bravery – Integrity.” In recent years, that maxim has been turned on its head. Today’s FBI and its … Read moreThe FBI: Secularism, Service, and Security

I was recently examining an old school bus for purchase in the hopes of completing its conversion into a rustic motorhome. Unfortunately, this specimen was not in good repair; a lot of shoddy work was apparent—apparent to me, that is, after a mechanic friend started pointing it out. Various fixtures were messily welded onto the … Read moreLiving in a Fake World: A New Year’s Recognition

Lately, I have been on the watch for nails. The need has been especially keen in recent months, when my little street near New Orleans has been under reconstruction. As crews have finished section after section of fresh, clean concrete and discarded the wooden forms, I have pulled dozens of four-inch nails off of the … Read moreNails and Other Instruments of Death

Cardinal Robert McElroy, the bishop of San Diego who has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the hierarchy under Pope Francis, has been named the Archbishop of Washington, DC, succeeding Cardinal Wilton Gregory, whose resignation was accepted by the pope. While any faithful Catholic will be dismayed by this news, it should come as no surprise. … Read moreThe Dimishment of the DC Archdiocese Continues Apace

By now, we are all familiar with the basic details. Four years ago today thousands of Trump supporters, including Donald Trump himself, gathered in Washington, DC to protest the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. They believed that the election was either stolen or at least rigged and that more investigations into the results … Read moreYes, January 6th Was an Insurrection

With the coronation of the MAGA movement taking place January 20th, 2025, I have to confess, I have a bit of a beef with them. It’s not a capital B beef, more like a small b. I rather like the concept of making America great—not so much to have bragging rights, but so that we … Read moreMAGA: What’s Missing?

Eliot’s allusion, among countless others strewn about the pages of the single most consequential poem of the last century—so many “fragments,” he called them, “shored against my ruins”—recalls the famous opening line from Book III of the Confessions, where a youthful Augustine, having come at last to Carthage, finds himself “in the midst of a … Read moreCicero and Augustine

Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; … Continue reading → The post January Thoughts appeared first on Catholicism.org. Read More

We have a lot of spaceship churches in these parts, here in Northern Virginia, lots of churches in the round. If they look like churches, which most of them really don’t, they look like they may have been Protestant of a certain vintage. The three local churches we attend on Sunday or daily are perfect … Read moreUgly Buildings, Beautiful Priests

Of all things, the recent debate about the H-1B visa program has illustrated a division in attitudes in what is vaguely known as the conservative movement. The program is supposedly to allow visas to qualified technical workers for the good of the development of business and technology. The three billionaires associated with the so-called populist … Read moreBillionaires and Visas