The year was 1967. The Summer of Love. Across America young people adopted a new way of living: “turning on, tuning in, and dropping out.” Love, or something like it, was in the air. But the counter-cultural movement of the Sixties caused much pain and confusion in the Roman Catholic Church. Today we suffer from the hangover: sex and drugs […]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 Prose Introduction to My Poem, Constantine’s Flight to Constantius Diocletian had been governing the Roman Empire since 284, eventually establishing his headquarters at Nicomedia in western Asia Minor. Nine years into his reign, Diocletian set up the First Tetrarchy (293-305), dividing the Empire into four huge […]
On Wednesday, August 15th Catholics from all over Northeastern United States and Canada will converge on one of the hidden jewels of Detroit; a 131 year old replica of the miraculous Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. In 1858, a peasant girl by the name of Bernadette of Soubirous claimed to see a […]
As a writer and speaker who frequently addresses topics related to the Second Vatican Council, I read with great interest Archbishop Gerhard Muller’s recent interview with Catholic News Agency (CNA) in which he was asked about the “doctrinal discussions” between the Holy See and the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). While declaring his optimism […]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 The air of centuries ago is healthful to inhale, especially when it blows balmy and pristine. Wafting from the past, the great Christian revolution of the 4th century has the capacity to ennoble modern hearts and uplift minds that have sunk like stones into what is seen […]
Unbeknownst to many, July 21, 2012 marks the 45th anniversary of an event that has severely and negatively impacted the life of every single Catholic on the planet; namely, the issuance of a decree by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) suppressing the requirements outlined in the Oath Against Modernism. Together with […]
For part one, please click here. Overview of Normae S. Congregationis: The original copy of NC comprised a total of four pages in Latin. It was signed by Francis Cardinal Seper, then Prefect of the CDF. It was undersigned by Fr. Jerome Hamer, O.P., then Secretary of the CDF. The document as a whole provides […]
American intellectual Will Durant’s The Lessons of History—co-written with wife Ariel and published in 1968, when the Soviet Union posed a threat to the United States—still offers insightful lessons, especially concerning American-Muslim relations. In the chapter titled “History and War,” the Durants posit some hypothetical speeches and approaches concerning war. First, an imaginary U.S. president […]
Every once in a while, I watch a movie that I hate. U.N. Me is just such a movie. I hated watching it but I have to recommend that others see this movie. Why? Because I believe that even if the truth is brutally hard to digest, it’s better than ignorance. I hated what was […]
A couple of months ago I openly questioned Andrea Tornielli’s publishing the Latin text of the Vatican’s document Normae S. Congregationis (NC).[i] This past week, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published not only the Latin text of the document, but also issued a translation in the major European languages.[ii] As the […]
“He moved about freely with them in Jerusalem, and spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord. He also spoke and debated with the Hellenists, but they tried to kill him.” (Acts 9:29, NAB) When St. Paul began traveling throughout the Roman Empire, truly going into the culture of death in order to proclaim […]
I’m doing something I’ve never done before. I’ve never written a movie review for a movie I have not yet seen or a book review for book I have not yet read. But I am so excited by the “buzz” about an upcoming movie that I thought I’d let you in on some of it. […]
Amidst all the tales of chivalry from the Titanic disaster there is one that’s not often told. It is that of Fr. Thomas Byles, the Catholic priest who gave up two spots on a lifeboat in favor of offering spiritual aid to the other victims as they all went down with the “unsinkable” vessel. A […]
Baby seals, puppies and horses all seem to have a universal ability to tug at people’s heartstrings. It’s just something about how we’re made, and Steven Spielberg’s War Horse doesn’t disappoint in that department. This film takes you on an emotional ride from the opening scene, the birth of a horse in rural England, right […]
“Social issues.” It’s a squishy, equivocal term suited to a mentality ill at ease with the hard-edged implications of “moral issues” and “morality.” What implications? That there are definite moral truths that show some things to be always and everywhere wrong and deserving of condemnation. Not what the “social issues” mindset cares to hear. There’s […]
A city like no other, maybe even more so this time of year. What do you call a city with a jail named Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven)? For the last 3,000 years, you call it Rome. Forty years had passed since I had last visited Rome, broke and hitchhiking through Europe the summer after […]
Claude Guéant, the French interior minister, sparked a firestorm last month when he praised Western values as “superior” to the oppressive ones found elsewhere, namely the Islamic world. Yet the controversy did more to spotlight an area in which the West clearly trails its rivals: self-confidence. If a government official cannot extol the unique virtues […]
Archbishop Charles Chaput has written one of the most insightful pieces of our time on modern journalism and the role, or should I say, “non-role” of religion in today’s public square. His searing piece, A Heart on Fire: Catholic Witness and the Next America, is a must read for all those who seek to live […]
On March 19, speaking at a Morris Township, New Jersey Democratic Party fundraiser, Vice President Joe Biden provided what may be the mother of all election year bumper stickers when he asserted, “Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. Think about it.” To help wrap our minds around these two facts, referring […]
In a recent column at CatholicCulture.org, Phil Lawler criticized the bishops of the United States for issuing statements on “too many debatable political issues” rather than sticking to matters that fall more properly within the scope of their teaching authority. As an example, he pointed to a newly released USCCB statement that “appeared to give […]
Even if you don’t agree with him, you have to admire George Weigel’s moxie. It can’t be easy serving as the spokesperson for a “conservative” Catholic movement that labors so mightily against the preponderance of evidence to reconcile every last scintilla of conciliar innovation with the Faith handed down from the Apostles. Yet, he does […]
Because it is now almost axiomatic for American school textbooks to whitewash all things Islamic (see here for example), it may be useful to examine one of those aspects that are regularly distorted: the Muslim conquests. Few events of history are so well documented and attested to as are these conquests, which commenced soon after […]
In the Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Lent in the Ordinary Form of Holy Mass, Jesus proclaims, “The Kingdom of God is at hand,” but what does that mean? Is this Kingdom still to come such that we might participate in bringing it to fulfillment, or is the reign of Christ the King […]
On December 8, 2006 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception), Mel Gibson released his epic movie, Apocalypto . Hopefully many eyes were opened by this movie’s portrayal of the evil of human sacrifices practiced by the Aztecs and other Indian cultures in what would become Mexico. The movie provides the historical backdrop of today’s Marian celebration: the Memorial […]
