Ireland’s Abortion Referendum: What Did Irish Voters Sign Up For?

Michael D'Emic

The “Yes” victory illustrates a new, sinister rending of human being-ness from any hope for moral objectivity.

Materialism is a Personal Cancer

Andrew M. Haines

The cure to materialism is equally caustic. It affects our scientific mind, and even dimensions of our apparent psychological well-being.

Philosophy God

Confessing Our Way to Vocational Discernment

Mattias A. Caro

In a world where the millennial seek their place and woke means, I suppose, being "really aware," confession works as the sacrament that brings us back to our calling in the present moment.

Two Ways to Be Political

Andrew M. Haines

For Christians to be politically significant, we must do more than just participate in the political activities that are handed to us. We must set a political agenda through our personal choices.

The world Philosophy

Consent is No Cure

Craig Michael White

Explicit consent makes sex look like a contract. We are caught in the liberal vise. 

The Other Catholic

Mattias A. Caro

Holiness can only consist of that particular and specific expression of seeing Christ in an encounter of charity and need.

Alfie Evans and the Secular Hauntings of Reformation Politics

Ryan Hunter

To reduce an appealer's line or scope of appeal on major ethical issues to his family, his locality, or even his nation, strikes me as a kind of creeping, insidious totalitarianism, an overt, brutal infringement on liberty.

The Language of Rights

Tim Colvin

Rights are always for the benefit of society and never just an expression of the autonomy of an individual. 

The Simony of Sacramental Preparation

Mattias A. Caro

Too much of our sacramental prep revolves around saccharine hoop jumping.  It's really time we stopped, thought, and changed that process. 

Upon Me Be Your Sins

Anthony M. Barr

"On me be your sin my daughter, and on the day of judgment I will render an account of it for you to the Lord; it is I who will be responsible for this to God."

Who's Pope Francis Calling a 'Gnostic'?

Andrew M. Haines

Someone who wants everything to be clear and sure presumes to control God’s transcendence.

The papacy God

What Makes Faith Attractive?

Andrew M. Haines

Our model for sifting faithfulness is broken. What makes Christian faith attractive is the claim it lays to things beyond our rational horizons.

Theology God

Should the Internet Forget?

Andrew M. Haines

Does permanence cut against the remaining shreds of humanity left for social networking? Or does anonymity pose too much risk for forming accountable, human structures for communication?

Philosophy The world

Holy Week: Time Turned Upside Down

Ryan Hunter

Death Himself, the Evil One who rejoiced while the tiny band of Christians wept at the seeming finality of the Lord’s death, is overthrown in his own realm, as the Lord tramples Satan underfoot like a loathsome weed.

Blood Upon Us: Ireland, Holy Week, and 300,000 Pieces of Silver

Michael D'Emic

The progress we've made is a short road to Hell, held up as “personal choice.”  It is, in short, the progress from Palm Sunday to Good Friday.

The Curse of the Protestant-to-Catholic Convert

Casey Chalk

We former Protestants simply expect things to be simple, straightforward, easily consumed, and then easily communicated to to others. And this is a problem to import into Catholicism. 

Get Thee to a Nunnery! A Critical Review of “Novitiate”

Charlie Ducey

This communal death, this secularization of the nunnery by churchmen who, ironically, use traditional routes of authority to undermine the traditional practices of the nuns, demands atonement. 

Toward an 'Interior Continuity'

Andrew M. Haines

Stifling Pope Benedict's voice, who is perhaps the moral theologian par excellence, endangers not only the clarity of the moral message of the Church, but the formation of all Christian consciences.

The papacy The church
Members only

Honoring Pope Benedict's Final Wishes

Andrew M. Haines

For serious Catholic thinkers, discerning continuity where it can be found is a distinctive feature of Christian intellectualism.

The papacy

Understanding The Franciscan Pontificate

Shaun Kenney

It really wasn't Thomism, but rather, a form of neo-Thomism that became popular during the first half of the 20th century, one that was very heavy on rules and memorizing catechism rather than focusing on some of the softer sides of the Catholic Faith: charity, joy, love.