Is Bishop Strickland’s Appeal a Dead Letter or a Call to Action?
A few weeks ago, Bishop Joseph Strickland sent an open letter to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as the group met in Baltimore for its fall plenary assembly. It was a remarkable letter in which Strickland accused his fellow bishops of silence in the...
Is Bishop Strickland’s Appeal a Dead Letter or a Call to Action?
A few weeks ago, Bishop Joseph Strickland sent an open letter to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as the group met in Baltimore for its fall plenary assembly. It was a remarkable letter in which Strickland accused his fellow bishops of silence in the...
Recent Articles
The Real Presence and the Flight from Reality
A 2019 PEW poll showed that less than one third of U.S Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. By contrast, 69 % said they believed the bread and wine “are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.” In response, the United State...
Pope Francis and the Fast-Approaching Future
Why “waiting him out” is not a good strategy Suppose that the Democrats squeeze out a win in the presidential election in two weeks. And suppose that, shortly afterward, new revelations provide overwhelming evidence that it was rigged. Should Republicans simply shrug...
Europe Unveiled
Out of the Dark Ages and into the Seventh Century One of my college history professors liked to emphasize that secularization was the most important development in modern history. At the time, it didn’t seem quite as important to me as the Industrial Revolution, two...
Pope Francis Wants to Humanize the Church, Instead of Helping Sinners Repent, Part 2
How humanism and therapy replaced sin and forgiveness For Part 1 of this essay, click here. Philip Rieff’s 1966 book The Triumph of the Therapeutic examined how the therapeutic mentality had swept through secular culture. What was less noted at the time was that the...