I often relay the anecdote that it was Steven Ray’s book on the papacy, Upon This Rock, that gave me the final intellectual push to convert – but mostly it was the opening quote, which brought me about 90% of the way even before delving into the scholarship within. “When Christ at a symbolic moment…
“No, you can’t eat that candy cane. Hop in the van. It’s time for Christmas!” My wife and I load our three excited young children in the van and drive out for a brisk sparkle tour before Midnight Mass. It is 20 degrees below zero, a definite improvement from last year. We are excited that…
It never ceases to amaze me just how dark the world becomes in the month of December, as we approach the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. I wake up in darkness, thinking it’s the middle of the night, when it’s already almost breakfast time. I look around at a dismal sky at…
Throughout this month of December, emphasis from the Vatican has been placed on migration and immigrant rights at a near frenzied level. Pope Francis addressed the issue of mass migration almost every chance he had last week, especially his interest in and support of the U.N.’s vote for a “Global Compact for Immigration.” Speaking to…
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on September 15, 2015. As internecine attacks and infighting seem to be on the rise among those who have attempted to hold the line against the Bergoglian “reforms”, we thought it would be worth re-posting. While some of the issues in play three years ago have advanced and…
For the modernist, Christmas must be stripped of its Christian meaning, separated from the religious holy day it is and always has been. It is not breaking news that traditional Christmas to secularists is the epitome of religious exclusion and consequently considered intolerant. Therefore, in the hands of secularists and modernists, it has undergone severe…
The papacy of Pope Francis has set many new bars for the Church. Many of us, who are faithful Catholics, have been shocked and dismayed as he appointed heterodox clergy and prelates; promulgated highly ambiguous documents that appear to challenge formal teaching; and terrified us with unguarded language of the latest airplane presser like a…
Children change everything. This is a truth we ponder many times in our lives. First, if we are believing Christians, we celebrate each year the coming of a child – the Child, Emmanuel, God with us, the Word made flesh – the infant, the boy, the youth, the man, on Whom all of reality hinges,…
Even a year ago, I was completely blind to the spiritual danger of the rising transgender movement. I conceptualized transgenderism as a treatable societal malignancy, which would not cause widespread problems if it could somehow be contained within the confines of an otherwise “cisnormative” (read: normal!) society. After all, even using bloated figures from activist…
In retrospect, it is easy to see the lines of demarcation between one society and another. Yet, when one considers the fall of Rome in the West that was clear by the year 476, it seems that the signs of crumbling that long predated the final collapse are largely forgotten. Similarly, most people familiar with…
All Catholics will sooner or later be asked a question like this: “So, what do you think of the charismatic movement?” It may come from a Catholic heavily involved in the “renewal”; it may come from a hardened skeptic; it may arise out of a simple desire to understand a fairly widespread phenomenon that appears…
