In the 1976 classic satirical film “Network”, television anchorman Howard Beale (brilliantly played by Peter Finch in an Oscar winning performance) exhorts his viewing audience to lose their apathy and to get angry about the state of affairs in the country: “I want you to get up right now. Sit up. Go to your windows.…
Bishop Johan Bonny was back in the news last week following his selection by the Vatican as a participant at the upcoming Synod on the Family in Rome. Bishop Bonny, you may recall, said the following back in December: “We have to look inside the Church for a formal recognition of the kind of interpersonal…
There are times where an important spiritual concept is lost in the marketplace of religious ideas, subdued and modified by pop psychologists and religionists seeking simple solutions rather than lasting challenges. The concept of “acedia,” if mentioned at all, is often grouped with negative emotions, depressive states, and feelings of underachievement. Jean-Charles Nault’s (O.S.B.) The…
If you’re a Catholic and you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably seen the sponsored posts. If you’re a person living in the DC Metro area, you’ve probably heard the radio ads, seen the posters at bus stops, or maybe even the full-page ad in the Washington Post. These ads, from a San Francisco-based non profit called the…
I don’t know what God has in mind here, but there has been an unnervingly close series of parallels between the popes and the U.S. presidents, at least since World War II. The following eerie coincidences between papal and presidential reigns strikes me as somehow significant. Make of them what you will… [one_half padding=”0px 20px…
I’m starting to think our national religion is Moloch worship. We sacrifice children to a demon, and rather than the blessings we would obtain from worshipping the True God, we have instead called down curses upon us. In a horrifying investigative story that came out today, a hidden-camera investigation exposes the fetal tissue trafficking industry…
Since the beginning of this current pontificate, the cool, considerate men and women of Catholic media have urged many of us not to jump to early conclusions regarding breaking news and alleged troubling quotes from Pope Francis. It is more important to get the story right than it is to be first, my former editors…
“Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt. 6:33) For several centuries now, there has been an intense “cultivation” of the town and an under-cultivation of the country. Industrialism has been the focus of our economy, creating a mass exodus from the country as…
Last week, I wrote about the dangerous symbolism of the hammer-and-sickle crucifix (and matching medallion) presented to Pope Francis by Bolivian President Evo Morales. Though many — very many — in the Catholic media jumped quickly to the conclusion that Pope Francis was “not amused” by the gesture and in fact said as much to…
As the presidential aids open the large case, Pope Francis stares into it, quizzical, examining the two medals laid therein. An aide of Evo Morales (the Bolivian president and leader of that nation’s Socialist Movement) then turns, draping first one, then the other, around the pontiff’s neck, the latter a four-sided cross inlaid with a hammer and sickle, superimposed…
Miserando atque eligendo: these words, chosen by Pope Francis as his motto, seem fitting, as his emphasis on the theme of mercy has been clear since the very beginning. And so, it should come as no surprise that he has announced a Year of Mercy—in fact, a Jubilee Year of Mercy—that will begin on December…
