Columns
Being Catholic: Hard – and Joyful
At first glance, it does not seem hard to be Catholic. Go to Mass on Sunday. Pray. Keep the commandments. Love others. Sounds easy enough. People like easy – it’s the key adjective in every advertisement these days: easy meals, easy programs,…
Sacrifice: Religion and the Revitalization of Christian Life
Sacrifice is a paradox. A compelling paradox. In his new book, Sacrifice: Religion and the Revitalization of Christian Life, Clemens Cavallin dives headfirst into the historical, theological, and salvific nature of sacrifice throughout the human…
The Original ‘Liturgy Wars’: Between East and West
In August 2026, America Magazine reported that “the liturgy wars are back (and never really left).” The fight Catholics have been having on and off – regarding the Traditional Latin Mass versus the Novus Ordo, Traditionis Custodes versus…
Theology of the Body in the Age of AI
Everyone who knows anything about Pope John Paul II’s “theology of the body” “knows” that it is about sex. Anyone who knows more than a little about the theology of the body understands that to say it is about sex is a bit like saying the book…
All The King’s Men – The Catholic Thing
Sitting atop his ivory wall, the pedantic egghead Humpty Dumpty tells Alice that any word he uses means “just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different…
Three To Get Married – The Catholic Thing
Fulton Sheen, officially to be declared “blessed” in a few days, began his wonderful book Three to Get Married with these four sentences: It takes three to make Love in Heaven – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It takes three for Heaven to make…
‘Third-Party’ Punishment is Not Catholic
Earlier this year a meta-analysis in Advances in Psychological Science found a correlation between having a heightened sense of self-righteousness and what is called “third-party punishment,” meaning punishing someone for a perceived infraction,…
‘Third-Party’ Punishment is Not Catholic
Earlier this year a meta-analysis in Advances in Psychological Science found a correlation between having a heightened sense of self-righteousness and what is called “third-party punishment,” meaning punishing someone for a perceived infraction,…
Devolution a la Mode – The Catholic Thing
In the pilot episode of the old television show The Waltons, the six Walton children have gathered outdoors in the cold and the snow, where a lady from a religious charity is handing out Christmas presents to the littler ones. The presents have…
A Century of Catholic Education
In 1896, Episcopal clergyman John Byron Diman founded St. George’s School in Newport, R.I. It became one of the so-called Saint Grottlesex schools, that name being a portmanteau of St. George’s, St. Mark’s, St. Paul’s, Groton, and Middlesex:…