Catholicism
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…
10 Years after ISIS: Catholic University in Erbil Flourishes
In the summer of 2014, Yohana Al-Zebbaree was a 12-year-old boy when his world turned upside down. From his home in Duhok, a city in northern Iraq, he recalls the whispers spreading across neighborhoods, saying that ISIS was moving closer.…
‘Conjuring’ No More – The Catholic Thing
Honestly, I’ve had it. I’m now all but certain there has never been a movie about exorcism that has had Christ at its heart. Thanks to Catholic author William Peter Blatty, the original Exorcist was good. Director William Friedkin deserves…
Lex Movendi, Lex Intelligendi – The Catholic Thing
My family and I spend a few months out of the year in Nova Scotia, in a part of the province that was once overwhelmingly Catholic. The congregations are aging, partly because a lot of young people leave the island for work far away, and partly,…
Is ‘Secular’ a Bad Word for Christians?
Pope Leo XIV recently reaffirmed a conviction Christians have held for centuries: “institutions need people who know how to live a healthy secularism, that is, a style of thinking and acting that affirms the value of religion while preserving…
Peter Kreeft Comes Home – The Catholic Thing
Chesterton once said that there are two ways of getting home. One of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place. Since the Church is our true home, we could say that the first is a good…
Pro-Choice ‘Catholic’? – The Catholic Thing
So, Cardinal Cupich has decided to honor pro-abortion Senator Dick Durbin. The chancery office says that they are honoring him for things other than his support for abortion, but that’s like honoring Bill Cosby for the wonderful things he did…
Embracing the Call – The Catholic Thing
People often ask me what they can do – or what should we all be doing – to deal with the many challenges we face, not only the obvious ones like wars, injustices, poverty, and so forth, but fundamental questions about what human life is and what…
Blinding Wealth – The Catholic Thing
The haunting story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is perhaps best understood in reverse, through the lens of where we find them at the end of the story. The status of each in the afterlife – the rich man’s suffering and Lazarus’s…
The Abuse of ‘Sanctuary’ – The Catholic Thing
“Sanctuary” has returned to the American political vocabulary, especially in the context of cities and states declaring they will not allow local resources – police or social services – to cooperate with federal authorities in identifying or…