On Not Buying Into the Mythology of “Prestige” Universities
Some years ago, a Catholic prep school invited me to address its parents’ association on the future of Catholic education. After describing how a truly Catholic education, stressing human and
Catholic “Beliefs” and the Abortion Debate
Do Catholics “believe that human life begins at conception”—a formulation that’s become ubiquitous in recent weeks? Well, yes, in precisely the same sense that Catholics “believe” that the Earth is
A Bold Catholic Investment in Inner-City Education
It’s a safe bet that “Mother Mary Lange” is not a household name in most U.S. Catholic circles. That unhappy state of affairs may change, though, thanks to a courageous
The Bishops, Donatism, and President Biden
In an article first posted at Commonweal and republished on July 7 in La Croix International, Professor John Thiel of Fairfield University, while criticizing the U.S. bishops’ decision to prepare a teaching document
The DeLauro Democrats and the Bishops
At 1 p.m. EDT on June 18, it was announced that three-quarters of the U.S. bishops had voted to develop a statement on the eucharistic integrity of the Church and
Collegiality and Eucharistic Integrity
The concept of the “collegiality” of bishops has been sharply contested since the Second Vatican Council debated it in 1962, 1963, and 1964. That discussion was sufficiently contentious that a
Gaia, False Gods, and Public Policy
I claim no expertise in climate science. I do claim a certain competence in detecting spin in the media; for I’m a card-carrying member of that clan, as I’ve committed
Woke “Rights,” the Equality Act, and Speaker Pelosi
On February 25, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives could have addressed any number of pressing issues. The nation was in its eleventh month of a pandemic that had already
Exodus, Lent, and Becoming a True Nation
Ten years ago, I began a most extraordinary Lent by walking up the Aventine Hill to the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the first day of the Roman station church
The Challenge of Eucharistic Coherence
In his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope St. John Paul II invited Catholics to “rekindle” our sense of “Eucharistic amazement,” for “the Church draws her life from the Eucharist,” which “recapitulates
President Biden and Progressive Catholic Fantasyland
Imagine yourself the op-ed page editor of a newspaper that prides itself on rigorous editorial standards. A column comes in, declaring Donald Trump the greatest president since Lincoln and citing
President Biden and a Catholic Inflection Point
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male
