Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
“The devil always sends errors into the world in pairs—pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is the worse. You see why, of course? He relies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one.” C.S. Lewis The Philosophers … Read more
If Bishop Robert Prevost personally participated in a rite explicitly identified as Pachamama in 1995, then the Pope Francis’ 2019 Vatican Gardens spectacle begins to look less like an anomaly and more like an eruption. What broke on March 18 landed like a second Amazon Synod, except this time the issue was not whether Leo … Read more
14 days after a Muslim terrorist shot up a bar in Austin, 8 days after two Muslim terrorists threw IEDs at an anti-Islamization rally in New York City, 7 days after Muslim terrorists bombed the U.S. embassy in Sweden, 3 days after Muslim terrorists attacked a college in Virginia and a Jewish preschool in Michigan, … Read more
My father arrived in America from Germany in 1939, 75 years ago. It was March 17, St. Patrick’s Day—a holiday my father had never heard of—and New York City’s marching bands and colorful parade amazed him. If this was how America welcomed immigrants, it was truly fantastic. St. Patrick’s Day would become my family’s special … Read more
US President Donald Trump’s decision to launch joint military strikes on Iran with Israel has provoked an epic fury of opposition from parts of his so-called “America First” base, whose talking points have now apparently inspired Iranian officials to echo them. “Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: US has entered a war of choice … Read more
The Islamic Republic and its ‘Axis of Resistance’ are victims of their own suicidal lunacy. Not even three years ago, paid goons of the Islamic Republic murdered a 13-year-old British girl. They bashed their way into the room in which she had scrabbled for sanctuary with her mother and sister and shot her to death. … Read more
Tonight the celebration of the holiday of Purim begins. Purim is a Jewish holiday often neglected outside the more religious communities in America and Israel because it commemorates an attempt to exterminate the Jews. If Purim had concluded with a lesson on tolerance, liberal Jews might be more inclined to celebrate it. Unfortunately it ends … Read more
Notre Dame’s abortion-activist debacle exposes a leadership untethered from the Church it claims to serve. The University of Notre Dame came under fire over the course of the past month for promoting an associate professor known nationally for her radical abortion activism, which, needless to say, is in direct conflict with one of the most … Read more
The internet, that great distorter of information, tells me that Cardinal Robert Sarah is “a member of the right wing of the Catholic Church.” An outsider might look at this and wonder if the Catholic Church is a hockey team with right and left wings. If it were, Cardinal Sarah would be the center, harboring … Read more
Fr. Paul Mankowski, SJ. Commentary on the Catholic Church Also see – “A timeline of abuse allegations against deceased former cardinal Theodore McCarrick” – “The Mighty Pen of Father Paul Mankowski, S.J.” – “Viganò on Scandalous Rumored Appointment of Peña Parra” Related PostsWisdom 1:5 Forgiveness Character is an artificial thing that is not … Read more
In the eighteen months I have been writing a near-weekly column for Catholic Culture, I have not been shy on the topic of Catholic-Jewish relations in the shadow of the Israel-Gaza War. You can read my previous work on the topic here, here, here, here, here, here and here. My emphasis has been that Catholics … Read more
Every Mother’s Day, several enterprising young thought-leaders try to include plant moms and dog moms in the celebration. Thankfully, they’re roundly ridiculed for comparing their pets to human children, or their caretaking experience to the challenges of motherhood. The selfishness of many (although certainly not all) deliberately childless women flares up at the sight of … Read more
This year marks the ten-year anniversary of the martyrdom of Jacques Hamel, the 85-year-old French priest who was brutally murdered on July 26, 2016, by two Muslim men inspired by the terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, otherwise known as ISIS or ISIL. During the Prayers of Petition, the two men, … Read more
These first four days of the holy season of Lent serve as a preface, indicating the preparation that we ought to make in order to spend Lent well and to dispose ourselves to fast well. That is why I have thought to speak to you, in this exhortation, of the conditions which render fasting good … Read more
A psalm of thanksgiving. Shout joyfully to the LORD, all you lands; 2serve the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful song. 3*Know that the LORD is God, he made us, we belong to him, we are his people, the flock he shepherds.a 4Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise. Give thanks … Read more
There’s a famous skit from the Irish sitcom Father Ted where, after hearing that his priest was caught making comedic caricatures of Asians, a parishioner greets him over a dry stone wall. “I hear you’re a racist now, Father,” he yells. “Should we all be racists now? What’s the official line the Church’s taking on … Read more
The All Saints Day proclamation of St. John Henry Newman as a Doctor of the Church was entirely welcome, if not without a certain irony. First, the good news. Newman was one of the most creative Christian minds of the 19th century, a truth seeker whose lifelong search for the face of Christ took him … Read more
A legal battle over two statues in Quincy [Massachusetts] raises the question: Must the public square be secular? TWO 10-FOOT bronze statues — one of St. Michael the Archangel, the other of St. Florian — are locked away in a storage facility in Randolph, casualties of a legal theory that treats the public display of … Read more
Failing to mention the Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day reflects a deep moral sickness. It’s not often we can say JD Vance and the BBC have something in common. The bruising VP of the United States and the lily-handed woke-mongers of Britain’s public broadcaster probably disagree on every big topic. But this week, briefly, they … Read more
A leading cardinal and former secretary of the Roman Curia has spoken to the Catholic Herald about the state of the Church, the role of the papacy, and how Catholics should approach authority. Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, described the veneration of the private and … Read more
Following USAID cuts, a network of Catholic university-based advocacy groups, staffed by USCCB and Biden-admin alumni, enables the bishops to continue advancing porous border initiatives. For decades, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops played an unmistakably political role in national immigration debates, issuing forceful policy statements, lobbying Congress, running public relations trips to the U.S.-Mexican … Read more
A new long‑term study from the United States has revealed that a significant number of women continue to experience deep regret years after having an abortion, prompting fresh reflection on how society supports women who face crisis pregnancies. Researchers tracked thousands of women over a period of years and found that around one in four … Read more
At the dawn of the 1950s, as atheistic communism was seeping into the West from the Soviet Union and as godless secularism and hedonism were on the rise in America, achieving the disastrous watershed known as the Sexual Revolution some years later, a Catholic bishop stood before a camera, a chalkboard over his shoulder, ready … Read more
This week’s oral arguments before the Supreme Court, in cases involving state laws that ban boys from girls’ sports, may prove to be a decisive turning point in the surreal political struggle over gender ideology. The battle is not won, but the momentum has shifted. Credit Justice Samuel Alito with the question that fully exposed … Read more
Many news organizations carried the story of the release of Bar Kuperstein two years after he had been kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. Kuperstein was a young security guard at the Nova Festival, the music festival targeted by Hamas for its fat genocidal possibilities, with sides of rape, torture, and kidnapping. After taking some … Read more