Columns
Of Jesus and Life at the Bottom
Among the greatest challenges that Jesus poses to His disciples are His prescriptions on wealth. On the one hand, Jesus extolls poverty. He begins the Beatitudes with the declaration, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of…
Whatever Happened to Natural Law?
There are many crises in the Catholic Church today, but one of the most serious is the dismal state of moral theology. That crisis has its roots in the confusion and intellectual ferment that ensued in the aftermath of Vatican II. Progressive…
Faith in Space – The Catholic Thing
During the high point of investment clubs – back in the dark ages, long ago, in 1998! – mom and pop investors would gather and use a tool such as the NAIC’s “Stock Selection Guide,” to pick stocks based on a ten-year record of sales, earnings,…
A Brief Note on Consequences
On a cool October evening some years back, a young woman – let’s call her Jenny, age 18 – checked into St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica and gave birth to a baby boy. Her friends had urged her to have an abortion. So did her boyfriend, Jack,…
Who is a Christian? – The Catholic Thing
The Department of Defense recently made waves over a decision to remove Mormons from the category of “Christian,” to distinguish more clearly among the chaplains and the servicemen as to who might best minister to them in matters of faith and…
‘Ars Poetica’ – The Catholic Thing
The proverbial Martian visiting America in this 250th year (a whole quarter millennium) of our existence would be struck by many things. But probably by nothing more obvious than the large gap between what, on the one hand, we daily say and do –…
Mozart, Freemasonry, and the Synodal Way
A recent, brief exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City highlighted the life and work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. J.P. Morgan, the famous financier, built his library on Madison Avenue in the 19th century as a place to house,…
Defeating Modernism – The Catholic Thing
Among the most distressing things about the Catholic Church is her (really, OUR) failure to take advantage of the many opportunities that the “modern world” accidentally offers us. We have made ourselves smaller and more inconsequential by…
Two Reflections on the Feast of the Sacred Heart
Human Hearts and the Sacred Heart Matthew D. Walz What is the “heart”? The Catechism proves helpful here. In a section on the unity of man, the Church teaches that man is “at once corporeal and spiritual” and that “man, whole and entire, is. .…
The Consecration of the United States to the Sacred Heart
The bishops of the United States are gathered in Orlando, Florida this week for the USCCB’s annual June meeting. The conference’s June meetings are generally more low-key than the November plenaries in Baltimore. That said, this week the…