Robert Royal writes that most U.S. bishops appear to await their November annual meeting to craft a new sex-abuse policy. But we can’t wait months. I came across an advertisement for a financial institution recently that, sad to say, displayed more wisdom than we usually find today among many people, including many Catholics: “Trust is binary. […]
Fr. Timothy V. Vaverek, STD on our current crisis: With Christ we can tolerate mistaken or wicked popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, and lay people. Note: Many people write asking: What are we supposed to do amidst all the turmoil in the Church and the world at the moment? Fr. Vaverek provides a no-nonsense, bracing answer below. […]
Brad Miner hopes the McCarrick scandal will benefit the Church. It’s time to drain the swamp of clerics who commit sexual sins, priests and bishops alike. A prediction: The McCarrick revelations will turn out to be a good thing. How so? Well, a part of the priest sex-abuse fairy tale is the cover-up. We know this – and that the […]
Matthew Hanley on the philosopher del Noce’s analysis of modernism: any thought pertaining to divinity in man is deemed meaningless and irrelevant. When previously on this site I wrote about the first book translated into English by the Italian philosopher Augusto Del Noce (d. 1989), I wanted to include his almost offhand remark: “There is no family if […]
Nicholas Senz writes that soon civil society won’t just reject Catholic teaching; it may feel compelled to silence and squash the Church itself. One of my favorite scenes in the movie Becket (if one can single out a thread from that masterpiece) is the moment when the eponymous archbishop is confronted by King Henry’s lieutenants, who try to […]
Fr. Gerald E. Murray: Engaged couples have an instinctive trust that the priest, as a man of God, will tell them what God expects of them in marriage. Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life, made some provocative remarks about priests and marriage preparation in an interview that appeared […]
Michael Pakaluk on the efforts to rescue the Thai soccer team trapped in a flooded cave. Humanity’s need for salvation meets humanity at its best. May all the Wild Boars be saved! – That is my prayer, joined with those of many others, please God, by the time you read these words it will have been […]
Anthony Esolen recalls a time when there was a solidity in belief: in the differences between the sexes and in the Church and its servants. Do you remember a time, readers, when you could spend a whole day, actually a whole month, occasionally even a year, and not give one passing thought to the issue of […]
Robert Royal, writing from Europe, praises a new report that analyzes persecution of Europe’s Christians in two categories: the Squeeze and the Smash. When we think about the persecution of Christians at the present moment, what comes to mind for most of us are places like China, the Middle East, or pariah states like North […]
David Carlin thinks the Cardinal McCarrick scandal means the Church needs two things: keep homosexuals out of the priesthood and ordain married men. Note: Professor Carlin makes an argument here about changing discipline on priestly celibacy that is not my own or, it hardly needs saying, that of The Catholic Thing (which takes no official positions). It’s an […]
Filip Mazurczak writes that no one says he’s personally opposed to human trafficking, but it’s better to have it safe, legal, and rare. So why on abortion? Those who believe that the right to life is a fundamental human right have experienced two major defeats on two continents in less than a month. On May 25, […]
Robert Royal praises recent pro-life words by Pope Francis. But why was the Holy Father all but silent about abortion votes in Ireland and Argentina? I’d been on the road for much of the past week and hadn’t been very carefully following the news. But I woke yesterday to the heartening news that Pope Francis had […]
A few days ago the U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling in the case of a Colorado baker who had refused, for reasons of religious conscience, to bake a wedding cake for the same-sex wedding of two men. Unfortunately, the Court ruling did not address the question of whether the baker, or anybody else similarly situated, […]
Fr. Gerald E. Murray writes that the resignation of Chile’s bishops reminds us that removal of abusers from the priesthood is a necessary and unmistakable rebuke. The surprise announcement by all the bishops of Chile of their submissions of resignations to Pope Francis is a stunning development. I did live television commentary for the Brooklyn Diocese’s […]
Fr. Timothy V. Vaverek writes that God does not make us sin, although He permits us to choose sin. And our sins are the reason for the Incarnation of Christ. Pope Francis is reported to have told a homosexual, “God made you that way and loves you.” In the last six months, I have responded to […]