Catholicism is in crisis all over Old Europe. Nowhere is that crisis more pronounced than in Ireland, where clerical corruption and disastrous episcopal leadership have collided with rank political expediency and a rabidly anticlerical media to produce a perfect storm of ecclesiastical meltdown. The country whose constitution begins “In the name of the Most Holy Trinity…” is now thoroughly post-Christian. And while there has been no one cause of that radical secularization, the Church in Ireland had best look to itself, its sins, its errors, and its unbecoming alliance with political power as it considers how to begin anew… . Continue Reading»
When an alcoholic finally gives up his booze, he no longer refers to himself as a drinker. When a nicotine addict quits puffing, she no longer calls herself a smoker. Yet for some reason, when a person who was raised Catholic stops going to Mass, ceases to accept the teaching authority of the Church, and publicly charges the institution and its hierarchy with both moral and criminal failures, that person is entirely free to continue calling him or herself a Catholic… . Continue Reading»
There is a lot to like about James Martin’s latest book, Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life. Aside from the amusing anecdotes and laugh-out-loud funny jokes (often ones that fry his own Society of Jesus, to his clear delight), Martin makes a fine intellectual, scriptural, and spiritual endorsement of G.K. Chesterton’s observation that “angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” A faith grounded in gratitude and a wider perspective, we understand, can create a solid tarmac from which we may soar… . Continue Reading»
The current Eurozone crisis may end up as a defining moment in post-War European, and indeed American, history. Most of my leftist friends regarded the financial crisis of 2008 as a “market failure” that vindicated their views about the evils of capitalism. The debt crisis in Europe offers no such consolations to modern liberals, who may now be facing their Waterloo. That’s because it is very hard to ignore that the Eurozone crisis concerns sovereign debt. Greek bonds have become toxic because of decades of political decisions. Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian bonds may go the same way, and for the same reasons… . Continue Reading»
“By the twelfth century,” Christopher Page writes in his magisterial The Christian West and Its Singers (2010), “the Latin West could be imagined as a soundscape of Latin chant.” From the eighth-century alliance of Pope Stephen with the Frankish King Pippin, a Frankish-Roman “repertory of plainsong” spread throughout Europe, suppressing competitors. By the end of the first millennium, cathedral singers in Hungary knew the same liturgy and sang the same chants for the same days as monastic singers in Spain and Sweden. … Continue Reading»
In June I explained how to destroy a culture in five easy steps. On reflection I realize that I was making the issue more complicated than was necessary since the task can be completed in one simple step. As science fiction writer Ray Bradbury once said, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” While this is certainly true, the genre of books that people stop reading matters considerably. In fact, one genre matters most of all … Continue Reading»
There are legitimate grounds for disagreement with Fr. Val Peter’s article on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, but Richard Wood’s reply, posted this past Wednesday, does not offer a single concrete counterexample to the initial charges. Instead, the reply begins, continues, and ends with a broad reassurance that has much in common with the raw assertion of a press release… . Continue Reading»
In December 1980, I spent several hours talking with Mike Hammer, a field representative in El Salvador of the American Institute for Free Labor Development. AIFLD, an overseas development affiliate of the AFL-CIO, was trying to bring some sense into the polarized politics of El Salvador, a country coming apart at the seams. A few weeks after we met, that violent polarization cost Mike Hammer his life… . Continue Reading»
In his recent essay for First Things, Fr. Val J. Peter insinuates Saul Alinsky into everything the Catholic Campaign for Human Development does. But both in concept and in practice the Campaign is in fact rooted firmly in Church teaching, both its moral principles and its social doctrine. Although Fr. Peter suggests CCHD substitutes “social justice” linked to institutional change for “charity in the traditional sense,” Pope Benedict XVI in his last encyclical makes clear that both are central Catholic commitments … Continue Reading»
In reading for the feast of Christ the King, and in preparation for Advent, I am every year compelled to re-read and contemplate the thoughts of our good Pope Benedict in Co-workers of the Truth: The King is Jesus. In him God entered humanity and espoused it to himself. This is the usual form of the divine activity in relation to mankind. God does not have a fixed plan that he must carry out; on the contrary, he has many different ways of finding man, and even of turning his wrong ways in to right ways… . Continue Reading»
