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Matthew Schmitz is a former senior editor of First Things. 

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Catholics Face a Choice

From First Thoughts

Will Catholics uphold the Church's teaching that the divorced and remarried cannot be admitted to communion, or will they reject it? Pope Francis has brought this question before the Church, though he refuses to formulate it so starkly. Continue Reading »

Briefly Noted

From the Aug/Sept 2016 Print Edition

Red, White, Blue, and Catholicby stephen p. whiteliguori, 101 pages, $12.99 In this primer on Catholic citizenship, the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s Stephen White reminds us that faithful citizenship is about love—“love for the people and institutions to which we are bound by birth and by . . . . Continue Reading »

Trump Is a Fool

From First Thoughts

Donald Trump is a fool—not because he is wrong about so many things, but because he is right about a few others. The fool is not only one who speaks nonsense, but one who speaks sense on the topic no one else will touch. He is the court jester pointing out the king’s failings. Were any sane man . . . . Continue Reading »

How To Celebrate Easter

From First Thoughts

Like Patrick Leigh Fermor did: with red eggs and firearms, alongside one's comrades. From Abducting a General, Fermor's account of his anti-Nazi resistance work in Crete:I got back to the hideout at last on April 16th, which was Orthodox Easter Sunday, the greatest feast of the Greek year . . . . . . . Continue Reading »

Hurrah for Baronius!

From First Thoughts

As someone raised in the scripture-centered precincts of Evangelical Protestantism who later found his way to Rome, I am particularly susceptible to frustration and shame at the state of the Catholic bible. It's not just the use of terrible translations like the NAB that grates, but also the low . . . . Continue Reading »