My oldest son once spent a summer on staff at a Scout reservation. Underneath his tent platform lived a family of skunks. They would amble by, mama and her kits (baby skunks are kits, as baby goats are kids), with nary a hint of animosity and rarely a spark of curiosity. Who knows how many summers . . . . Continue Reading »
If Catholics in the United States are going to be healers of our wounded culture, we’re going to have to learn to see the world through lenses ground by biblical faith. That form of depth perception only comes from an immersion in the Bible itself. So spending ten or fifteen minutes a day with the . . . . Continue Reading »
He shone in his days as a morning star in the midst of the clouds.~Pope Gregory IX at the canonization of St. Francis of Assisi (1228) There lived in the town of Assisi a man whose name was Francis. . . . In him we can contemplate the excess of God’s mercy: he brought the good news of peace and . . . . Continue Reading »
Most people understand the word “death” to mean the end of biological life or, as Merriam-Webster defines it, “a permanent cessation of all vital functions.” But now an influential cadre of utilitarian bioethicists wants to redefine it to include a subjective and sociologically based . . . . Continue Reading »
Last Friday, on May 6, Pope Francis was awarded the Charlemagne Prize, which is conferred annually by the city of Aachen, Germany, upon persons who in one way or another represent European ideals and contribute to European integration. The address Francis gave on the occasion is notable for a number . . . . Continue Reading »
The disaster of this presidential election is a long time in coming—it will spawn disasters beyond our imagining—and yet it remains our responsibility to persevere and make the best of our challenges and opportunities as they come upon us.The first thing is to steel ourselves for a disaster in . . . . Continue Reading »
Two days after that circular firing-squad known as the “Republican primaries” came to a de facto conclusion on the banks of the Wabash, the Wall Street Journal had this to say:A plurality of GOP voters has rejected the strongest presidential field in memory to elevate a businessman with few . . . . Continue Reading »
Mormons must appreciate Richard Mouw’s good faith effort to find common ground between us and “orthodox” Christians, as well as First Things’s according him the space to publish this effort. I reply in the same spirit, hoping both correctly to identify common ground and to explain . . . . Continue Reading »
Is there a fact of the matter about a person’s gender? To answer in the affirmative is to adopt a realist stance on questions of gender identity. We could formulate such a realist position as follows: there is a mind-independent feature of reality that decides a person’s gender, and it is not . . . . Continue Reading »
When Daniel Berrigan died recently at the age of 94, obituaries throughout the world described the legendary Jesuit as a defiant pacifist, who will be remembered most for his political protests, legal trials, and time in prison. But there was also a more contemplative side—one that reveals his . . . . Continue Reading »
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