I’ve written before about the rather significant indications that Pope Francis is a religious indifferentist, and why that’s a bad thing. Regular readers will require no additional explanation. In fact, most of us are absolutely sick to death of talking about him. He’s bad, we know it, and there’s not much we can do about…
Background: A few years ago, a friend graciously asked me for permission to nominate me for a one-year visiting professorship at a Catholic College which was beginning a study of bias (as the focus for that professor’s teaching and research). I thanked my colleague but declined the nomination. I then wrote to the President of…
An acquaintance of mine was once distraught upon learning that I celebrated Easter. From his reactions, it followed that he saw proclaiming the truth of Christianity as inseparable from a colonialist mindset and an implicit Western supremacism disparaging other religions and cultures. In other words, he considered my public affirmation that Jesus Christ has truly…
Much has been said of a United States Catholic Bishop committee releasing a guide titled Catholic Hymnody at the Service of the Church. The guide has received cautious praise from Catholics, for it tackles many of the problems with post-Vatican II hymns (finally, we can at least agree that heresy in a hymn is indeed…
It’s really a remarkable thing. This president and this White House, through all the chaos and bluster that seem to constantly surround both, have demonstrated a closeness to the Catholics of this nation that is really unprecedented. From President Trump being the first to make a personal appearance at the March for Life, to the…
There is a classic scene in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life where George Bailey tells his guardian angel, Clarence, “I wish I’d never been born.” That is a statement which some others have likely uttered at some point in 2020. George is at the end of his rope; he has watched friends outpace him…
“Relativism, that terribly effective bleach, has wiped out everything in its path.” –Robert Cardinal Sarah, The Day is Now Far Spent Precis: The foundations of the good political order are grounded upon, and are faithful to, virtues discovered by right reason and practiced by diligent statecraft. Such virtues are betrayed at grave peril; first…
Image: Massacre of the Innocents, Peter Paul Rubens Memento mori: remember death. The last vestiges of colorful wrapping paper have not yet been whisked away by the garbage men. There is still leftover rib roast in the fridge. We have only just begun the octave of celebration of the Incarnation, the birth of the Christ child,…
EN GREGE RELICTO[1] Considerations on the Nativity scene in Saint Peter’s Square At the center of Saint Peter’s Square, a metallic tensile structure dominates the scene, hastily decorated with a tubular light, underneath which stand, disturbing as totems, a few horrible statues that no one endowed with common sense would dare to identify with the…
There is a great deal of grotesquery in the world and in the Church. The controversy over the Vatican Nativity Scene this year — a kind of “art” I have described as “weaponized ugliness” — has certainly driven the point home. (One might quibble with my use of “grotesque,” which implies something comical; that said,…
Over at The American Conservative, Rod Dreher devotes an entire post to a “cautionary tale” from a reader about the dangers of soft totalitarianism in unexpected places. The writer shares a good deal, and their whole story is worth reading, but their ultimate warning is different than the one their story prompted in me. Allow…
