Anthony Esolen: To say Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the future of the Church is stupid. She is not the future of anything that has a future, because she is stupid. In a recent editorial, Heidi Schlumpf, editor of the National Catholic Reporter, suggests that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is the “future of the Catholic Church.” Her encomium […]
David Carlin: The decline of Christianity is found not just in those who claim no Christian faith, but also in those who claim to be liberal Christians. Modern history (by which I mean the history of the western world since about the year 1500) tells many stories. I suspect that these many stories are subplots in […]
Lorraine C. Murray: One of our greatest Southern writers knew we can’t pass laws requiring people to love each other as Christ loves them. Flannery O’Connor is the latest cultural figure to be canceled. The very title of Paul Elie’s recent article in The New Yorker, “How Racist Was Flannery O’Connor?” assumes her guilt. Jumping upon the cancellation […]
Hadley Arkes: American mayors and governors lack the common sense to see when “peaceful protests” turn into seditious assaults on the rule of law. The philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), a learned, buoyant man, sustained all his life by a network of family and friends, nevertheless took the grimmest view of that biped who conjugated verbs. Left […]
Fr. Paul D. Scalia: The Church’s children should resemble her. We ought to strive to be catholic (universal) in our zeal, our mercy, and our embrace of Truth. In today’s Gospel, our Lord likens the Kingdom of heaven to “a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.” (Mt 13:44-52) This net, […]
David Carlin: Leftist propaganda is so well-coordinated that some believe a command-and-control apparatus lies behind the whole system. A stable society is made up of people who largely agree on certain “self-evident truths.” Now, it may be that these common beliefs are not truly self-evident, the way for example the proposition “the whole is greater than […]
Thomas Weinandy OFM Cap.: On film, actors may pretend to kill or steal. Such scenes aren’t per se sinful. But nude sex scenes are real and, therefore, sinful. I recently celebrated Mass on the feast of St. Maria Goretti, and decided to use the readings for the feast instead of the normal weekday. The first reading was […]
Randall Smith to college students: Want your diploma handed to you without effort or mastery on your part? Go somewhere else. You’re not tough enough for the real world. The disgruntled, like the poor, we will always have with us. Grumbling is not just something God’s people do in the wilderness. It has been a common […]
Randall Smith: If you are looking to get America back on track, consider encouraging and even funding study of the Constitution and our Founding documents. The legend has it that a crowd had gathered outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia as the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention were concluding in 1787. As Benjamin Franklin exited the Hall, […]
Robert Royal: The BLM-Antifa “uprising” is following the Marxist playbook. To end it, we need to stop its infiltration into schools and media. A shrewd woman (to whom I happen to be married) recently read me some passages from an old news story about the re-naming of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, given to writers of […]
Eduardo Echeverria: If “white” equates to “racist,” then our institutions, though democratic, merely reflect determinism and, therefore, empty actions of moral responsibility. Iconoclasm refers to the practice of breaking religious images (Gk. Eikonoi). American culture is currently under iconoclastic attack not mostly for its religious images. Rather, if you turn on the TV, you will see […]
Chief Seattle, who gave his name to the currently troubled city in the State of Washington, was pure Native American (father Suquamish, mother Duwamish). A mighty warrior, he essentially eliminated the rival Chimakum tribe in a battle on what is now the Quimper Peninsula. Like other native chiefs, he owned slaves. And he was a […]
I grew up the beneficiary of white privilege. It was my “privilege” to spend my first fifteen years in a cold-water tenement at 131 Beverage Hill Avenue in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. There was no central heating. The tenement was heated by the same kitchen stove on which the cooking was done. If you wanted to […]
As of last week, lockdown restrictions have been almost fully lifted in Italy. Shops, restaurants, cafés, etc. are reopening. Italians can now see friends, family, and colleagues freely, with some local discretion being exercised by each region. Churches are also now in “phase 2” of re-opening. In one of the oldest basilicas in Rome, Santa […]
I don’t like it when I hear that a person is non-binary – in other words, that the person is neither male nor female. But I chalk that up to mental illness, and I feel sorry for such a person, and I hope that he/she/it gets help. I dislike it even more when really up-to-date […]