NOTE: The pope’s appointment of controversial Cardinal Kevin Farrell as the new camerlengo – the man responsible for administering the Vatican in the event of the pope’s death or resignation – raises questions about the future of the Church once Francis is no longer pope. The following article discusses some of the possibilities. William Kilpatrick: […]
Anthony Esolen on equality: If I am admitted into the kingdom of God, far be it from me to demand equality with Peter and Paul. Egalitarianism is the radical error of our time. If we do not attack it at the root, we will find we have nothing of cultural or spiritual value left to conserve. […]
Note: There’s so much happening in the Church and the nation on abortion that we thought it right to run two columns today. Michael Pakaluk argues that the brazenness of the New York State law may actually make overturning Roe v. Wade more likely as people come to see how extreme abortion supporters have become. Anthony Francois, who has worked on related […]
David Warren: Christ Militant defeats the strategies of Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, etc. Christianity has always been dismissed but has always triumphed. At this moment, I write next to a large window, against which winds are crashing, moaning and howling through every crack they find. It is a fine midwinter scene, up here in the Great […]
George J. Marlin raises a question very much on the minds of many Catholics. Surely, some rebuke from New York’s bishops is necessary. In March 1970, the New York State Legislature repealed the anti-abortion law that had been on the books since 1830. The bill narrowly passed, due to support from several legislators from heavily Catholic […]
Anthony Esolen: Nobody, knowing that he is steeped in moral sewage from head to toe, should rave and rage at the filth on his neighbor’s shoe. I dislike writing about failure and sin, and dearly wish that the leaders of my Church would give me less occasion to do so. Everyone by now has heard […]
Randall Smith: Rarely does anyone really feel “safe” when so many people are struggling just to avoid offending everybody else. I walked by an office the other day on which I saw a sign that said, “Safe Space.” I immediately felt unsafe. I hope everyone who comes into my office feels safe. But shouldn’t the […]
Fr. Gerald Murray: If the dark clouds of 2018 have a silver lining, it’s that there’s a chance that immoral priests and bishops will no longer be tolerated. One aspect of getting older, and wiser, is the shedding of once comforting, but in fact naïve illusions about individuals or groups. We normally trust that certain […]
Bevil Bramwell, OMI on Christmas: God is doing the great task of saving mankind and we should be overwhelmingly grateful. On this Third Sunday of Advent, less than two weeks before Christmas now, the message for the Church is all joy. The prophet Zephaniah announces the coming of the Messiah: “the Lord your God is in […]
Anthony Esolen: The sick need mercy, especially a man at odds with his own body. But compromise principles? Never. Jesus never did. When the Pharisees came to Jesus to ask for what reasons a man might put away his woman, Jesus does not refer to the opinions of Hillel or Shammai, the titans of the […]
Michael Baruzzini on the recognition by science of Fr. George Lemaître, co-discoverer of the Big Bang, who found no conflict between faith and reason. On October 29, 2018, the International Astronomical Union announced its recommendation that the erstwhile “Hubble Law” be referred to as the “Hubble–Lemaître Law.” The law relates the distances of galaxies to their […]
David Carlin wonders if there’s anything Americans of all types can agree on. Ceaseless and passionate commercial activity, perhaps? But that’s not enough. A few weeks ago I wrote on the great divisions troubling American society at the moment and the possibility of a second civil war. The concluding paragraph of that column included this: “I console myself with […]
Robert Royal in Rome: Will bishops reimagine a Church of change resembling the society it’s meant to evangelize, or the age-old, infallible Bride of Christ? A formerly evanescent creature called “Synodality” has been spotted with increasing frequency in these last days of the Synod on Young People, Faith, and Vocational Discernment (to give the synod its full working […]
David Carlin: Beware of churches, whether Catholic or Protestant, that advertise themselves as “welcoming,” because that suggests institutional suicide. In my hometown of Newport R.I., there is a beautiful old Episcopal church, Trinity Church. The parish was established in 1698, an Anglican beachhead in Puritan New England; and the church building itself, modeled on some […]
Ines A. Murzaku: The Sino-Vatican deal on the appointment of bishops, really does resemble, as Pope Francis has suggested, the status quo . . . of the 12th century. During the in-flight press conference as he was retuning from the Baltic countries, Pope Francis recalled how kings and emperors once controlled bishops’ appointments. He expressed relief […]