God’s Image, Man’s Crimes
by James R. RogersMosaic (and Noahic) teachings regarding the death penalty are revelations of God and teach us of God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love. But how? Continue Reading »
Generation Z: Desperate for Rules
by Betsy VanDenBergheAbiding by moral rules, especially when they are explained meaningfully and mercifully, gives teenagers swimming in a sea of relativism and nihilism a “moral vocabulary.” Sympathy isn’t enough. People need norms. Continue Reading »
Redemption of the Erotic
by Charles J. ChaputThe following is an excerpt from Archbishop Chaput's new book, Strangers in a Strange Land: The crime of the modern sexual regime is that it robs Eros of its meaning and love of its grandeur. It’s a lie. It’s a theft. It makes us small and ignoble.
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The Sacraments Don’t Need Fixing
by Dan HitchensCommunion discipline, Rocco Buttiglione says, should be changed to incorporate the difference between objective and subjective guilt. This is wrong. Continue Reading »
NFP Is Not Always “Marriage-Building”
by Audrey PollnowUnfortunately, a lot of NFP promoters preach NFP as a prosperity gospel. When this happens, NFP doesn’t deliver and people abandon it. Continue Reading »
What Francis Forgets About Marriage
by Edward PetersThe Church affirms that human beings are by nature suited to contract marriage, and she teaches that Christian couples can call upon the graces of the sacrament of Matrimony in living out the marriages they contract. Against such an ancient and affirming tradition, Francis’s assertion that “the great majority of our sacramental marriages are null” shocked both common sense and Catholic sensibility. Continue Reading »
The Other Footnote in Amoris Laetitia
by Michael PakalukPope Francis’s recent Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia is, for the most part, a beautiful presentation of Catholic teaching on marriage and the family. But its eighth chapter strikes many readers as problematic. This chapter attempts to identify the patterns of reasoning by which a prudent . . . . Continue Reading »
The Latino Marriage Paradox
by Nicholas H. Wolfinger and W. Bradford WilcoxEduardo and Graciela Valdez met on the dance floor of a New York salsa club in 2000. Graciela, a single mother, had returned to her childhood Catholicism after giving birth to a son out of wedlock. Continue Reading »
Amoris Laetitia and the Words of Christ
by Nathaniel PetersThe first paragraph of Amoris Laetitia states that “the desire to marry and form a family remains vibrant, especially among young people.” Throughout my engagement, however, my desire to marry has sometimes been less than vibrant. To paraphrase my archbishop Cardinal O’Malley, I long for . . . . Continue Reading »
Modern Weddings Have Lost Interest in the Marriage Bed
by Leah Libresco SargeantI became engaged at Easter, and, as I’ve started planning our wedding with my fiancé, I’ve noticed a suspicious lacuna in the wedding how-to's I’ve picked up. I would have thought, after one magazine’s handbook covered strategies for getting your pet turtle to join your wedding procession . . . . Continue Reading »
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