Allow me to briefly bury the lede. I’ve often said that I’m not a journalist, I’m a commentator, and as such, I don’t make an attempt to hide my bias in the interest of the expected, but in most cases fictitious, ideal of journalistic objectivity. Today, I’m feeling the need to actually turn the bias up a…
“There seems to be a new normal where sin has become almost inevitable for most of us … For some reason — which in part due to us, in part due to the wisdom of God — the new normal for our generation seems to be that we keep on falling, we keep on sinning,…
Over at Catholic Culture, Phil Lawler has a pretty devastating take on the rather convenient wielding of the threat of mortal sin by Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee, who has just reinstated the Sunday obligation in his diocese: Starting this coming Sunday, it will be a serious sin for a Catholic in the Milwaukee archdiocese…
I’ve got to be honest, I absolutely agonized over writing my piece, No More Platitudes: It’s Time to Take a Hard Look at the Crisis of Catholicism. I started writing it weeks ago. Well, I should say, I wrote the first draft of a piece that never saw the light of day weeks ago. I wrote it,…
A few years ago, my wife looked at me, after one of my rants about how bad things were getting in the Church, and asked me a simple question: “If this makes you so miserable, why are you still doing it?” I understood her question to be about my work, in particular, but also about…
In a new directive from Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation For Divine Worship and the Sacraments, published with the approval of Pope Francis, Catholics are urged to recognize that virtual participation in the liturgy and the life of the Church is not a replacement for the real thing. The letter, published today, is entitled,…
We have carried the torch. We have rebuilt. And we have done what we said we never would: we have forgotten. Today, on the 19th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history, the internet and news channels will be filled with retrospectives on the day we all watched in horror as multiple attacks…
Growing up during the pontificate of John Paul II, it was easy to fall in love with the figure of the pope. His warm, sincere smile, his grandfatherly presence, his constant words of encouragement, and his admonitions to create a culture of life were all extremely attractive to a young, conservative Catholic like me. My…
Image: Pontifical High Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC. Photo by Steve Skojec. Last weekend, I got together for dinner with one of my best friends from college. We now live together in the same city, and our kids are as close as cousins. As the children…
As the week — and the month — wind to a close, I wanted to thank you all once again for your readership of 1P5. We know that you have more options than ever for good Catholic news and commentary, and we’re happy that you choose to be here. It’s a weird time we’re living…
There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us. – Saint Jean-Marie Vianney The first time I walked through the doors of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, I was overcome. This greatest treasure of Christian architecture impressed upon me an incredible and awe-inspiring feeling of smallness. As…
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