The Catholic Thing

By Fr. Gerald E. Murray The canonically illegal consecration/ordination (the terms are interchangeable) of four new bishops by two Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) bishops who were themselves illegally ordained by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre 38 years ago is a renewed wound upon the Mystical Body of Christ. This schismatic act of disobedience carried out in direct defiance of Pope Leo XIV's public warni...

By Francis X. Maier The historian Henry Adams once described politics as "the systematic organization of hatreds," and that's often where we seem to be in these last days before our nation's 250th birthday. As a Wall Street Journal column noted earlier this week, chronic Democratic hatred of Donald Trump, along with Trump's own many "genuine sins and imagined ones, handed the left permission to co...

By Robert Royal But first a note from Robert Royal: In line with the column below, we call your attention to the series of brief commentaries on the Catechism of the Catholic Church that Fr. Gerald Murray is doing for the Faith & Reason Institute. Click here for details. You'll be happy you did. Now for today's column... Like many Americans, I've been refreshing my knowledge of the American Revolu...

By Brad Miner The Anglo-American poet, T.S. Eliot (born in St. Louis), wrote "The Hollow Men" in 1925. The poem concludes with this haunting quatrain: This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper. The poem appeared two years before Eliot joined the Church of England. (He had grown up in Unitarianism.) Eliot had a kind of...

By Fr. Paul D. Scalia What is a thing worth? In economics, it's relative. Prices fluctuate. Markets rise and fall. A thing is worth what someone's willing to pay for it. Back in the 1980s, my LPs were worth a lot. With the arrival of CDs, they were worth almost nothing. Then, when vinyl became cool again, they had new worth. The problem is that we apply the same economic, relativistic thinking to...

By Fr. Raymond J. de Souza The Cardinals attending the extraordinary consistory in Rome will depart today, just as the customary delegation from the Patriarchate of Constantinople arrives for the solemn feast of Peter and Paul. It's an annual fraternal custom. A delegation from Rome visits Constantinople for the feast of St. Andrew on November 30th. Last year, Pope Leo XIV led the delegation perso...

By Joseph R. Wood A long drive recently allowed me to listen to the unabridged audiobook of Homer's Odyssey. It was worth all 780+ minutes. Hearing the poem helped me understand why it is foundational to the Western understanding of human life, and how archetypal it is of human experience. My reactions are not those of a well-versed critic, but only those of an amateur, who undertakes an activity...

By Stephen P. White As you surely know, not least because it has been mentioned repeatedly in these pages, the bishops of the United States, in preparation of the celebration for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence have consecrated the entire nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. No doubt you also know, faithful readers of The Catholic Thing, that the image of the Sacred Heart...

By Msgr. Charles Fink It's a commonplace observation that most people think more readily in pictures than in abstract concepts, and that stories move and transform us in ways that logical arguments often don't. God, who of course knows this, therefore has revealed Himself to us, as C.S. Lewis put it, by writing Himself into a part in our story – at once author of the whole and character in the pla...

By Randall Smith and Luis E. Lugo The next synod might or might not deal with the Church's "just war" doctrine. So, let me go on record as saying: I don't like war. It doesn't represent a great "profile in courage" to say that. I mean, who loves war? I suppose some tyrants do. But that poses a problem. If tyrants pursue wars in order to secure their positions of power, what are others who hate war...

By Robert Royal There's a strange ferment underway in American education. This week, two promising Catholic initiatives emerged: a gathering at Christendom College on K-12 education that resulted in the Front Royal Principles, and a high-level consultation in Washington D.C. organized by the Cardinal Newman Society, pursuing the renewal of everything from kindergarten to college-level Catholic ins...

By St. Pope John Paul II Excerpted from Address of John Paul II to the members of the Pontifical Council for the Family, June 4, 1999 The theme of fatherhood, which you have chosen for this plenary meeting, refers to the third year of preparation for the Great Jubilee, dedicated precisely to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is worthwhile reflecting on this theme, since in today's family the...

By Auguste Meyrat 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 heaven." Elsewhere in the Gospels, He tells a rich man to give away all his possessions since "it is easier for a camel to pass through...

By Richard A. Spinello 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 moral theologians proposed questionable moral theories like proportionalism and the "fundamental option," while prominent scholars lik...

By Michael Pakaluk 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, and profitability. These sober "retail investors" wouldn't even look at a prospectus. A newly launched company was simply too speculative...

By Francis X. Maier 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, also 18, who waited with us now outside the delivery room, his eyes red with feelings he didn't expect and couldn't put a name to. I sat...

By Anthony Esolen 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 morals. The label seems to be intended as a generic marker, as the department went on to separate Catholics, Lutherans, and Pentecostals fr...

By Robert Royal But first a note from Robert Royal: Thanks from the bottom of our hearts to all of you who donated to our mid-year fundraising campaign. From what we've received and what we can anticipate will still arrive, especially monthly donations, we're confident that TCT is good now for the rest of the year. So, let's carry on together! Now for today's column... The proverbial Martian visit...

By Brad Miner 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, preserve, and make available to scholars Morgan's burgeoning collection of rare books and manuscripts, among them copies of musical scores in Mo...

By David Warren But first a note from Robert Royal: We had a site failure yesterday morning, which our tech people resolved quickly. And many of you somehow connected and donated anyway. If you wanted to, but didn't, today is the last day of our formal mid-year fundraising. So you still have a chance to add your support to The Catholic Thing. I'm prejudiced, but how can you not? Now for today's co...

By Matthew Walz and Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap. But first a note from Robert Royal: Two more days should do it - if we make it. So let's end this campaign with a bang and get back to the chief business of The Catholic Thing. 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,...

By Stephen P. White But first a note from Robert Royal: We had a very good campaign day yesterday. (Have I said lately how confident I am in the generosity of our readers?) So all the more reason that we get over the finish line in what I hope will be these last few days of our fundraising. Many thanks to all who have contributed to get us where we are now, and one last appeal to those of you who...

By Casey Chalk But first a note from Robert Royal: We're near the end and near the goal! We're only several thousand short of putting TCT on a solid footing for this year and beyond. Now's not the time to slack off. One last, big push. . . .And then we can all get back to the main, truth-telling purpose of The Catholic Thing. Now for today's column... When the classic French novel Madame Bovary fi...

By David G Bonagura, Jr. But first a note from Robert Royal: Beauty comes to us in many forms, among them, in my (clearly unbiased) view, via TCT. Time grows short, donations still are too. We need a final push this week. It's about the existence of The Catholic Thing. What more can I say? Now for today's column... What do you suppose was the favorite site in Rome for the majority of a group of tw...

By Randall Smith But first a note from Robert Royal: The Christian story is unbelievable to many people today. But as Professor Smith argues below, it makes perfect, literally unavoidable sense. One reason TCT exists is to explain the faith in terms that bring the great mysteries home to us. We're getting near the end of our fundraising campaign and still have several thousand dollars to go to mee...