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 […]
The horror of the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests, an unspeakable crime, has been compounded in many cases by the decision of Church leaders – bishops and religious superiors – to downplay grave allegations, and to refuse punishing priests found guilty of criminal behavior. The recent exposure by Christine Niles at ChurchMilitant.com of horrendous […]
Brad Miner: Civility, civilization, civic, civil: each word has its root in the Latin civis, citizen. Citizens should honor their country; to honor it you must learn about it. The Fourth Commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.” That’s not just […]
Eduardo Echeverria: Promoting equality among all religions leaves us with indifferentism and hence relativism, and that is a denial of the Gospel. Muslims worldwide are currently observing the month of Ramadan. And the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue has issued another of its various messages (viewable here) over the years on the occasion of this or […]
Helen Freeh: Sooner or later we must restart American commerce, and Catholic leaders need to avoid casting the decision to do so as a choice between God and mammon. Michael Pakaluk recently argued on this site that the dichotomy between life and money is false. The Holy Father in his Easter Monday homily, however, set up […]
David G. Bonagura Jr.: Beginning today, we are bereft of our usual Holy Week celebrations; empty-handed, so to speak. But we do have Christ. Today, in countless Catholic churches the world over, palms will not be given to the faithful. Many of us will watch piously on our TV screens as priests begin by blessing […]
Helen Freeh on COVID-19 and us: Genesis has a beautiful line in which Joseph says to his brothers, “you meant it for evil but God has turned it to good.” In the face of an assault, natural disaster, or act of war, humans have an overwhelming desire to do something. Here in Nebraska, we suffered historic […]
David Carlin wonders if fundamental human rights really can be “discovered” by a majority vote of the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. People who (like me and, I suppose, most readers of The Catholic Thing) object to the Roe v. Wade ruling made by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 – the ruling that declared that the […]
Carrie Gress: To renew culture and restore families, women must embrace again the beautiful order that comes from valuing true, honest, and strong men. Five decades ago, radical feminist Kate Millett and her eleven friends in New York City recited a type of litany, a feminist manifesto of sorts, that has proven to be remarkably […]
Hadley Arkes: For Democrats, abortion is a “right” that extends beyond pregnancy and entails nothing less than the right to kill a child born alive. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act finally came before the Senate in the last days of February. This was the sequel to the Act passed in 2002, the Act that […]
Randall Smith: You either habituate people in the Catholic virtues or watch the culture habituate them to vices – and get used to failure. Sometimes an article is just so important you have to draw people’s attention to it. That article is “Why Faithful Catholics Get Divorced” by Tom Hoopes, written fifteen years ago, but […]
Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky is a conservative, a label sometimes distracting; an invitation for controversy. But preaching the truth and acting on it is a Catholic thing. At times, priests reveal intimate secrets about themselves from the pulpit. I’ve always hesitated to do so mostly because a sermon should be about Jesus, and innermost secrets and […]
Randall Smith: Modern secular views of religion purport to have respect for each of them but often breed a sort of dilettantish disrespect for all of them. Periodically, I find myself wanting to learn more about other religions. It might be a major world religion such as Hinduism, Buddhism, or Islam, or something more obscure, such as what Mormons […]
Filipe Avillez: What could be more harmful in the long run than bringing up your child to think that nobody they love will ever die? Somebody alerted me the other day to a podcast by a child psychologist. He was asked whether children should attend funerals and firmly replied that they should not. Funerals are very […]