Thomas Weinandy OFM Cap.: On film, actors may pretend to kill or steal. Such scenes aren’t per se sinful. But nude sex scenes are real and, therefore, sinful. I recently celebrated Mass on the feast of St. Maria Goretti, and decided to use the readings for the feast instead of the normal weekday. The first reading was […]
Randall Smith to college students: Want your diploma handed to you without effort or mastery on your part? Go somewhere else. You’re not tough enough for the real world. The disgruntled, like the poor, we will always have with us. Grumbling is not just something God’s people do in the wilderness. It has been a common […]
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, […]
Robert Royal: The BLM-Antifa “uprising” is following the Marxist playbook. To end it, we need to stop its infiltration into schools and media. A shrewd woman (to whom I happen to be married) recently read me some passages from an old news story about the re-naming of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, given to writers of […]
Eduardo Echeverria: If “white” equates to “racist,” then our institutions, though democratic, merely reflect determinism and, therefore, empty actions of moral responsibility. Iconoclasm refers to the practice of breaking religious images (Gk. Eikonoi). American culture is currently under iconoclastic attack not mostly for its religious images. Rather, if you turn on the TV, you will see […]
Chief Seattle, who gave his name to the currently troubled city in the State of Washington, was pure Native American (father Suquamish, mother Duwamish). A mighty warrior, he essentially eliminated the rival Chimakum tribe in a battle on what is now the Quimper Peninsula. Like other native chiefs, he owned slaves. And he was a […]
I grew up the beneficiary of white privilege. It was my “privilege” to spend my first fifteen years in a cold-water tenement at 131 Beverage Hill Avenue in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. There was no central heating. The tenement was heated by the same kitchen stove on which the cooking was done. If you wanted to […]
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 […]