Stephen P. White: If Cardinal Robert McElroy has his way, we’ll be left with a vision of Christian life which lacks any hint of the freshness of the Gospel. Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego has penned a lengthy reflection (available here) on how the synodal process might address the exclusion of certain categories of people. The essay […]
Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap.: We need evermore deeply to repent of our sins, confess them humbly, and resolve more ardently never to commit them again. It’s been widely reported that Pope Francis told seminarians from Barcelona, Spain, in an unscripted talk, that they must not “be clerical, to forgive everything.” Such must be the case […]
Note: This column first appeared on January 24, 2020, before the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson last year, which reversed the Court’s finding in Roe v. Wade that there was a federal right to abortion – and returned questions about abortion to the individual States. Three years later, as the debates continue in many States, there is […]
Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas: Fr. Frank Pavone has expressed the hope that the next pope could undo the damage done by the present one. He should take comfort from the experience of St. John Henry Cardinal Newman. For more than half a century, we have been hearing of “the spirit of Vatican II,” which has […]
Francis X. Maier: If we Christians who still have the blessings of religious freedom sleep, then the world our grandchildren inherit will be a world increasingly without the Cross, and without the truth. History is a great teacher. According to oral tradition, when Emperor Justinian walked into the completed Church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) […]
David Warren: Just as the job of a physics professor is to teach what he cannot completely understand, we must remain modest when confronted with supernatural things. And know what we cannot know. “One cannot understand modern physics,” a possibly wise particle physicist said to me some years ago. I took him at his word. I […]
Stephen P. White: Being a father is an unmerited chance to participate in the love of God the Father. A chance to be a glass through which, however darkly, children can glimpse Him. There’s no shortage of conversations these days about men and masculinity. Everyone seems to be wondering: “What’s up with men?” From transgender debates, […]
David Warren: The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is a thing. Who’d have guessed progressive modernity would be humanity’s end? The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is officially a thing, I learn from the usual reliable media sources. Its founder, Les Knight, advocates intelligent non-breeding. While most World. Economic Forum and environmental crusaders only want the world’s population […]
All of us at The Catholic Thing wish all of you and your families a Blessed Thanksgiving. Romano Guardini: Who knows – if we may speak in this way – what God feels when we not merely perform our duty toward Him, but give Him love. Let us attempt to obtain a view of this gradually disappearing virtue […]
Roberto de Mattei: The mission of the Church and of the Vicar of Christ on earth is this and no other: to recall the saving truths that the world ignores or despises. As of October 21, Italy has a new government: the best possible government at the worst historical moment since the birth of the Italian […]
William H. Dempsey: America’s most-famous Catholic university evidently values peer approval more than fidelity to Catholicism, opting for peace and quiet over the struggle for the truth. When Pope Francis spoke out about the “woke” gender theory fueling today’s transgender frenzy as “a great falsehood” and “ideological colonization,” he doubtless didn’t anticipate that , America’s leading […]
Stephen P. White on a new study of how the abuse crisis, and the American Church’s response to it, affected the relationship and trust between priests and their bishops. The crisis of clerical sexual abuse, which wracked the Church in the United States in recent years, deeply eroded confidence in the credibility of our bishops. There […]
The new Prime Minister of Italy. Wow. pic.twitter.com/fkKTM8I9Fs — Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) September 26, 2022 Robert Royal: The rise of populist Giorgia Meloni in Italian politics reflects a Europe-wide reaction against open borders and attacks on traditional culture, including the family. If exit polls hold, yesterday Italy elected its first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. The […]
Blessing or a Curse? Stephen P. White The Flemish bishops of Belgium published a document this week on pastoral care for homosexual persons. The most notable aspect of the document is its inclusion of a text for blessing same-sex couples. The bishops plan to present the text to Pope Francis when they travel to Rome […]
John M. Grondelski: Pro-lifers should find ways of simplifying the message. Hold up an aspirin in a school board meeting, and ask why that, truly for healthcare, requires in schools parental knowledge and consent, but an abortion does not. In the wake of Dobbs, pro-abortionists will leave no stone unturned to use – as they did before Roe – the […]