Editor’s note: this message with a redacted version of the linked column was sent to the diocese of Kerry on November 8th intended by the author for His Excellency, Bishop Browne. We publish this now as an open letter with permission. Author’s preface: when, on 30 October, in Ireland, Father Sean Sheehy preached an…
Above: Stephens County Courthouse, Texas. The Taproot of Evil: Forgetfulness Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teaching (Hebrews 13:9). To “beg the question” is a logical fallacy in which a claim is assumed to be true without evidence other than the claim itself. Let me, though, beg the question here by…
The Pity and the Pretense “Fidelity, fidelity, fidelity!” –Father Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) Father Frank Fourberie (fictitious) is fifty-eight years old. He has been a priest for thirty years, and he is now pastor of a large urban church in a major American city. Father Fourberie is a generally kind, thoughtful, and generous man.…
Nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor’s life is at stake (Lev 19:16b [NAB]). “We simply cannot,” said Pope Francis. His interlocutor was puzzled, wondering what it is that we cannot do. The answer came swiftly and inexorably. “Fight another war. The error came in the early Church when its fathers made a…
Bioethically, we no longer know men from women; legally, we no longer know when life starts or stops; morally, we no longer know right from wrong or virtue from vice. Too often, our personal lives are squalid, our political affairs are corrupt, and our pastoral leadership is reprobate. The cause? The world, the flesh, the…
“The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.” –Leon Bloy (1846-1917) Suppose someone contended that saints are conformists. Would we not shrink from that assertion, thinking it an insult against all holy men and women? The poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example, once…
This column is a response to a piece written by a priest in a diocesan newspaper, essentially arguing that we must always seek common values and common views with all people who disagree – a false irenicism. While it is true that “A gentle answer turns away wrath” (Prv 15:1), there are also times when…
Conferences at various places and conversations with many people over the past few years have persuaded me that there is a torrent of profane (meaning impious and irreverent) “logic.” This is increasingly evident, not only in our institutions, but even in much of our daily life. Our former president, Bill Clinton, once captured its spirit…
“Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked doings” (Isaias 58:1 [DRB]). A recent statement from the Parish Council of Holy Trinity Church in the District of Columbia benightedly and truculently exclaims that their church “will not deny the Eucharist to persons presenting themselves to receive it.” I…
Charles Peguy (1873-1914): “It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive.” Elsewhere, I recently published a piece pleading for the universal reinstatement of the Traditional Latin Mass. This plea flies in the face of fears that the usus antiquior will be restricted, or…
“But my people would not listen to me . . . . So I let them go their stubborn ways and do whatever they wished” (Psalm 81:11-12; cf. Romans 1:24-25). One version of a famous fable is this: A scorpion asked a frog for transportation across a river. The frog, thinking that the scorpion…
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