The infamous “mystery clause” penned by Justice Anthony Kennedy in the majority opinion of Planned Parenthood v Casey (1992) succinctly summarizes the modernist precept. “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” Kennedy’s definition of liberty…
D.H. Lawrence wrote a novel about Mexico in 1926, a time of severe persecution of the Church in that country. In his book, The Plumed Serpent, he recounts the words of Dona Carlota to her friend, Kate. Doña Carlota’s husband, Ramon, is the leader of a group dedicated to Quetzelcoatl, the Aztec serpent god: ‘Ah, Señora!’ said…
A few days after the election, an old college acquaintance wrote me – as “a brother in Christ” – to express his concerns that I was not using my online influence to expose evil, and to “spread the Gospel.” I appreciated the gesture (and still do). But, I was also flummoxed, since I had not…
We knew, over a month ago, that it was coming. It hardly softened the blow to see it. The Vatican Nativity scene for 2020 is…well, it’s horrifyingly ugly. This year’s #Vatican Nativity scene, revealed tonight, comes from a town in the Abruzzi region of Italy famous for its ceramics. Its creators say it’s meant to have…
The other day, as I was scrolling through social media, I saw a headline that caught my eye. “China is harvesting thousands of human organs from its Uighur Muslim minority, UN human-rights body hears.” The first thing I did was look at the source. I know the kind of wicked cruelty China is capable of,…
Let me begin with a massive understatement: the Bible is not an easy book, and few, too few, are the Catholics who make the study of it a regular part of their spiritual lives. Before we even delve into it, we are confronted by the fact that the Bible is really many books of many…
On May 30, 1990, a grievously depressed teenager hurled himself from the balcony of his apartment in Mexico City, plunging 30’ to the pavement below. He suffered life-threatening head injuries and the doctors gave him a zero chance of survival. Hoping against hope, his family prayed urgently to Juan Diego for a miracle. Ten days…
Image: The Immaculate Conception, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo by Marianna Bartold “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Gen. 3:15) “Amongst all the works of the Great Creator,” says Raymundus Jordanus (who, in…
“My first and last philosophy, that which I believe in with unbroken certainty, I learnt in the nursery. I generally learnt it from a nurse; that is, from the solemn and star-appointed priestess at once of democracy and tradition. The things I believed most then, the things I believe most now, are the things called…
Author’s note: I originally wrote this elsewhere, 9 years ago this Sunday, on the day my grandmother died. I’ve been thinking about her this morning, on what would have been her 96th birthday. After re-reading what I wrote back then, unable to keep the tears from flowing, I wanted to share her – her light, her…
Increasingly, I have found myself wondering why the world is so ugly. I do not mean the natural world, which always retains its created splendor, but the art and architecture of the modern world. It seems that almost nothing in modern art can achieve the beauty possessed by numerous cultures before our time. From the…
