2025
The Wisdom That Directs Reason
In His discourse at the Last Supper, Christ teaches the Apostles about three related themes: knowing and seeing God, loving God, and being one with God. He holds out these three as different aspects of a single phenomenon. Christ tells the…
Pope Leo XIV, St. John Paul II, and the Fertility Crisis
Pope Leo XIV has joined the chorus of those lamenting the implosion of global fertility levels. Speaking after a visit with the President of Italy, the Pope urged action to implosion of fertility and the collapse of childbearing. Encouragingly,…
The Two Forms of Christian Service
Christianity is a religion of paradoxes. One is the strange relationship between the natural world that we see and the supernatural world that we do not. The latter is where God resides and is our ultimate home. At the same time, it is…
What Do We Owe? – The Catholic Thing
In the 2005 movie Cinderella Man, based on the life of boxer James J. Braddock, there is a touching scene in which Braddock, having had to take government assistance for a time to support his family, shows up at the public assistance office to…
Yes, Christopher Columbus – The Catholic Thing
Today is Columbus Day, or (among the alternatively oriented) Native Peoples’ Day, both displaced in any case, as even major Catholic feasts now are, to a different date, so that people will have long weekends, or not be inconvenienced, or…
Poverty and the Kingdom – The Catholic Thing
Pope Leo issued an encyclical on poverty this week. Perhaps he should recommend it in part as a cure for our ills. “Blessed are the poor,” says Jesus, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The only time I met the saintly Father Benedict…
Contemplation and the Cross – The Catholic Thing
In Herodotus’ Histories from the 430s BC, we read of a wise Greek philosopher and political thinker, Solon. While traveling, Solon met the King of Lydia, Croesus, who was known for his immense wealth. Croesus asked the philosopher what he…
When German Catholics Fought Back
There was a time when German Catholics fought for the faith. One hundred and fifty years ago, half the bishops of Prussia were imprisoned, as were hundreds of parish priests, leaving more than a thousand parishes orphaned. All of them had…
Itching for New Foundations – The Catholic Thing
Ask an educated Catholic what the two leading teachings of Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum are, and, if he knows anything at all about this foundational text of modern Catholic social teaching, he will likely say that it endorses labor…
The Devil and the Duckspeakers
Every few years, I reread a couple of my favorite authors. George Orwell, despite his disdain for things Catholic, has always been on my list. This time I paid special attention to his essay, “The Principles of Newspeak.” He appended it to his…