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…
Editor’s note: The following is not the position of 1P5, but we submit the author’s opinion to help inform discussion on the question of the always troublesome (these days) Jesuits. As we lament their present state, it is worthwhile to consider their illustrious past. Merely saying the word “Jesuit” will likely cause a frown in…
Last week, the display cases at my Catholic high school, which house the most recent creations of the art students, caught my attention. They contained dioramas commemorating family members and close friends who were clearly deceased. I assumed, it being the week of All Souls’ Day, that this was a project coinciding with that feast.…
Like many Catholics who love their faith, I have struggled to find an explanation for the current crisis in the Church. Despite countless hours of research and analysis, I still find the situation deeply mysterious. It seems that the impossible has happened. It seems that the Church has lost either its visibility or its indefectibility.…
I am a loyal son of the Church, Catholic born and raised. I studied for the priesthood for two and a half years, was loyal to the pope and reverential to my bishop, and I teach theology at a committedly Catholic high school. I was what some might style a “true believer,” until my worldview…
Any Catholic who has studied the history of the Church since the 1960s knows that revolution has happened. “Revolution” is an important word, as it describes points in history when change has happened, often violently but sometimes under cover of “progress.” It took France three revolutions to finally get rid of the monarch. There was…
She looked up at me. Messy pigtails, marvelously intelligent brown eyes, a precocious wisp of a petite three-year-old: my boyfriend’s niece. Surrounded as I was by games and chatter, everyone thronging together for a day of fun on a Catholic family of sixteen’s farm, I stood still and looked down at her. “Will you take…
Editor’s note: The following is an expression of hope, not certainty. Any resemblance to real people, places, or years is entirely coincidental. Remarks by Father Geoffrey Schultz after the Rite of Dedication to the Church of St. Bonaventure, in the Year of Our Lord 2082. Dominus vobiscum! The heart of the Community of St. Bonaventure…
One of the many things that has disturbed me in this ecclesial turmoil through which we are living is the simple thought: what are the abusive priests thinking? What do they think of themselves and of their victims? How can they live with themselves? Do they believe anything of the Catholic Faith? The same question…
