Entries by The Catholic Thing

How Bad Are Things?

David Warren: You bottle up young people, and then an ideologue lights a match. They become “Molotov people,” filled with nothing except natural fuel. Some have argued, this could turn out well. From my information, homeschooling has grown explosively across the U.S.A., and this doesn’t seem to be receding much, as the Batflu lockdowns ease. Whether […]

Lifestyle Liberalism Takes Money – Lots of It

Randall Smith: Too many Americans, both “liberals” and “conservatives,” believe America is great because individuals get to choose their own idea of the good. Many people assume that a society “progressive” in its moral views would naturally be “progressive” in its economy, that someone who believes in a more equal distribution of goods would also be […]

“The Devil and Karl Marx”: A Review

Robert Orlando: In his new book, Paul Kengor plunges a stake into the heart of the devil and Karl Marx. But as we know, such vampires are not so easily killed. Paul Kengor is a teacher and writer who has always had an eye for the spiritual dimension in history, politics, and economics. (He was the perfect partner […]

What Won’t We Tolerate?

Stephen P. White: Democrats are politically immune to Catholic criticism of their support for abortion. Unwavering support from millions of Catholics is why. Joe Biden wants you to know that he is Catholic. Joe Biden wants you to know that his Catholic faith is very important to him. Joe Biden takes his faith so seriously, that […]

Banish Sin, Transform the Church

David G. Bonagura, Jr.: Detractors say trivializing sin was part of Vatican II’s spirit and is still in the post-conciliar Church. But the perennial problem is really sin itself. The Second Vatican Council is back in the news lately, with two prominent, tradition-minded bishops revisiting well-known arguments of conciliar interpretation in light two recent Vatican documents, Amoris […]

Ideology Makes You Stupid

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 […]

Flannery O’Connor Was Not a Racist

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 […]

On the Uses and Misuses of Crowds

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 […]

Catholic and “catholic”

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, […]

The Great Progressive Propaganda Machine

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 […]

“A Republic, If You Can Keep It”

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, […]