.jpg)
Flipping around the radio dial a few weeks ago, I made a 90 second pit stop on Mark Levin’s program, about as long as I can stand most conservative talking heads lately.
It’s not that we don’t share similar objectives (e.g., the defense of marriage as one man and one woman, an end to the evil of abortion, a government that doesn’t mandate despicable practices, etc.); it’s just that they’re always hawking a remedy that’s destined to fail.
The clarion call to change the...
Imagine the scene in the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives as the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee calls the meeting to order with three decisive blows of the gavel:
A hush falls over the unusually large throng of observers as the presiding legislator greets the star witness and asks him to identify himself, stating his cause, that it may be noted in the official record.
As a barrage of flashbulbs and the rapid fire sound of clicking shutters emanates from the pool of...
Make no mistake about it: The Church in our day is in the midst of a terrible, and in many ways unprecedented, crisis of faith. This objective reality, however, is largely lost on the overwhelming majority of Catholics, both clerical and otherwise.
While some Catholics, with deliberate intent, actively promote the various agendas that underlie the situation, others simply choose to downplay the magnitude of the crisis out of sheer weakness, as acknowledging the problem suggests a...
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson
A recent video by Fr. Robert Barron, “Gay Marriage and the Breakdown of Moral Argument,” called to mind just how right Jefferson was.
In his commentary, Fr. Barron said:
“In his great text, After Virtue, the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre laments not so much the bad state of morals in the west, though that’s true enough, but he laments something deeper, and more fundamental;...
Recently, I’ve been reading about the phenomenological method employed by the Council Fathers of Vatican II, as elucidated by Dr. Paul Zarowny in a review of the book, Vatican II, Theophany and the Phenomenon of Man: The Council’s Pastoral Servant Leader Theology for the Third Millennium, by Passionist priest Fr. John F. Kobler (American University Studies, Series 7, vol. 100).
Although the article is a bit dated, Dr. Zarowny’s insights seem to shed some light on the difficulties...
On Feb. 10, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI announced his intention to renounce the papacy due to his waning strength in the face of a world “subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith.”
Many, including me, understood him to mean that navigating the obstacles (some well-known, others a matter of speculation) that litter the course of renewal upon which he had set the Barque of St. Peter needed a more energetic helmsman in order to carry the...
Our first parents, endowed with every good gift and living in friendship with the benevolent Creator, yielded to the temptation to assert an autonomy that was never their own, exalting themselves over God.
Thus, as illustrated in the masterwork of St. Augustine, was the “city of men” set in conflict with the “City of God.” Yet in the fullness of time, God sent His only begotten Son to establish that Kingdom wherein He might offer to humankind infinitely more than it had...
On February 26, 2013, the Denver Post ran an article that contained the following:
Colorado parents of transgender 1st-grader file complaint over restroom ban. The parents of a transgender 6-year-old have filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division because Eagleside Elementary School in Fountain banned the first-grader from using the girls’ restroom. The child, Coy Mathis, was born male but identifies as female.
She (sic) had attended the school since December 2011 before...
Last summer, I had a conversation on the topic of religious liberty with a dear priest friend who is a very accomplished moral theologian and seminary professor. He’s one of very few people I know whose rock-solid orthodoxy, knowledge and insight make him a reliable guide in all matters Catholic.
That being the case, I was surprised to discover how little familiarity he had with the relevant papal magisterium of the centuries prior to Vatican II, and how comfortably he repeated the...
Pope Benedict XVI has tendered his resignation effective 28 February, 2013.
In making this stunning announcement before the College of Cardinals, the Holy Father cited “advanced age” and a lack of “strength of mind and body” as the factors that led him to conclude that he is incapable of “adequately fulfilling” the Petrine ministry.
At first blush, the Holy Father’s statement seems to say little more than, “I’m old and I’m tired,” and while I’ve no doubt that he...
