American Democracy’s Moral and Cultural Foundations
This essay is in response to James M. Patterson’s “Do We Still Hold These Truths?” For someone who was arguably the most prominent Catholic intellectual in the United States in
Prudential Voting in Bad Times
Sixty years ago, Father John Courtney Murray, S.J., published what I regard as the finest Catholic analysis of American democracy ever penned: We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American
Joe Biden, Pre-Conciliar Catholic?
The image of the pre-conciliar Catholic Church in the United States as catechetically effective and politically potent can be hard to square with the long-term damage done to Catholicism’s role
The Hard Road of National Renewal
Earlier this fall, I was happy to be one of the initial signatories of “Liberty and Justice for All,” a call for national renewal drafted by scholars concerned about the
The Toxic Waste of Roe v. Wade
Great Britain’s parliamentary democracy has no constitutional text, but rather a “constitution” composed of centuries of legal traditions and precedents. So when British courts make grave mistakes, those mistakes can
Truman’s Terrible Choice, 75 Years Ago
Three U.S. Navy officers look out at me from a small black-and-white snapshot, taken in Sasebo, Japan, on September 26, 1945: three and a half weeks after the Japanese Empire’s
Religious Freedom: Bleached, Blanched, and Rinsed Out
Father Richard John Neuhaus put two Big Ideas into play in American public life. The first was that the pro-life movement (of which Neuhaus was an intellectual leader) was the
Why We Are Where We Are
By early March 1865, more than a million Americans had killed or wounded one another in civil war; the killing, wounding, and maiming continued for another month or so. Yet
Catholic Schools Are ‘Public’ Schools
A mile or so from my home in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., the county is completing work on a handsome new middle school, currently surrounded by plastic fences.
From ‘Anchors Aweigh’ to Away-from-Church
If any group of Americans could reasonably be expected, and trusted, to conduct themselves in ways that minimize the danger of spreading infection during public worship, you might think that
Will Nancy Pelosi Take a Page from Her Father’s Playbook?
In 1918, Mayor James Preston presented a 264-piece silver service to Cardinal James Gibbons on behalf of Baltimore and its citizens—a municipal tribute to the city’s beloved archbishop on the
Religious Freedom Is Not a Boon Granted by the Benign State
Sometimes the mask slips. Sometimes the curtain is drawn back prematurely. And then the reality of things comes into clearer focus. That is what happened when the April 20 edition
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God-talk and our European cousins
Cold War winners and losers
