Pope Francis has denounced capital punishment in recent years, and responses from concerned Catholics have focused largely on whether the Holy Father’s words represent a faithful account of the Church’s fundamental teaching. Amid this debate, most have overlooked the fact that Francis’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Over the last half-century, dozens of remarkable Catholic women writers have fallen almost entirely out of print. In their own time, their books were widely read, often bestsellers. Taken together, their work spans an impressive range of social, political, and spiritual perspectives; it is often . . . . Continue Reading »
Initially developed at the University of Toronto between the 1930s and 1970s, media ecology is a meta-disciplinary perspective that understands media as environments that shape human consciousness. Despite this expansive approach to media, media ecology has generally shied away from exploring that . . . . Continue Reading »
A few months ago, I predicted that the Francis pontificate would seek to establish cordial relations with the Rainbow Reich. (See “While We’re At It,” January 2024, composed late November 2023.) In mid-December the Vatican issued the declaration Fiducia Supplicans, vindicating my . . . . Continue Reading »
As the Christian transformation of the Roman Empire was marked by the turning of pagan temples into churches, so we can expect the reverse to take place when a culture paganizes. Continue Reading »
This year brings the rare convergence of Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day, and they have a surprising complementarity. Continue Reading »
Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day offer the pattern for our marriage in miniature—love expressed through mutual dependence. Continue Reading »
The proposed changes to the Irish constitution seem to be inviting Ireland to advance further into an era of cognitive dissonance about motherhood. Continue Reading »
Unless the Holy See takes concrete measures now against those who go beyond the limits established by Fiducia Supplicans, it will lose credibility and authority. Continue Reading »
The “mystery of Israel”—that’s what Jacques Maritain called Israel’s endurance as the people of the Old Covenant, its indomitable insistence on Jewish particularity over and against the universal claims of Christianity. Through the ages it has been a source of both legitimate . . . . Continue Reading »
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