I was deeply moved by the article that appeared at this site, entitled “Seminarian: ‘Is There Any Reason Why I Should Remain Catholic?’” What follows is my affirmative reply. I’m under no illusions that my answer will be comprehensive or convincing to everyone, but what it has going for it is the sincerity of a…
“Unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday.” -Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen One could easily agree that 2020, and even the beginning of 2021, has been “Good Friday” for many Catholics. As the sun begins to shine once more, we look hopefully to the future for our…
This morning, I was very sad to learn of the death of Chuck Uhlenkott, the father of one of my best friends of the past 26 years and a singular figure in my own life. He passed away on May 13th. The funeral is today. In early 1997, the year I started college, I had…
One of the most remarkable, versatile, and intriguing modern writers is Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, social critic, and satirist, whose voluminous works are a colorful patchwork of books published with serious titles under his own name and books published with fanciful or teasing titles under a bewildering variety of pseudonyms (including Judge William, Constantine…
Editor’s note: we received this submission from an anonymous seminarian, and have chosen to run it as such. It is the cry — and the challenge — of a child to a neglectful father: “Why weren’t you there to protect me when that was your job?” It’s the cry — and the challenge — of…
Proverbs tells us: “What a joy it is to find just the right word for the right occasion” (15:23). So it is with the word imposturous, which ideally captures the essence of the deceit which characterizes what currently masquerades as social ethics. If an impostor is someone who pretends to be someone else to deceive…
Each day brings further stories of injustice, especially for those pursuing Godly faithfulness and truth. It feels we are bombarded with gut-wrenching examples that defy normality, commonsense, and sanity, especially for a country that uses “In God We Trust” as its motto — though certainly, the citizens of other nations are feeling this as well. So…
Editor’s note: Despite Jacob’s concern that this post comes across as a “shameless plug,” we’re absolutely thrilled to see Catholic businesses run by creative, faithful families succeed. We’re only too happy to share this information with you in the hopes that you find something of value here, and we applaud families like the Tates for…
Last month, Alexis McGill Johnson, the current president of Planned Parenthood, penned a New York Times Op-Ed in which she claimed, “We’re done making excuses for our founder.” That founder, of course, is the early 20th century racist eugenicist Margaret Sanger, who made contraception and abortion targeted at culling the “unfit” from society her life’s…
Every now and then, I re-issue the call for submissions. As both COVID and Francis fatigue have worn on, we’ve had had fewer submissions coming in. People are sick and tired of being sick and tired – of everything. And that’s understandable. But that’s why it’s important to remember that 1P5’s original mission was (and…
When Pius XI promulgated his encyclical Divini Illius Magistri on December 31, 1929, it became the most important papal document to date on the Christian education of youth—a distinction it has retained to this day. With good reason did contemporaries dub the encyclical the “Magna Carta” of its subject, admiring its thoroughness, penetration, and lucidity.…
