Can Holy Water Be Mixed? Question: Can you replenish holy water that you have for personal use by adding to it with regular water when it gets low? Answer: First it is important to discuss just what holy water is and what it signifies. … [Read more...]
Flannery Was Right
The Problem of Nihilism Within the Catholic Church
February 26, 2022 by Fr. Damian J. Ference
In a letter to Betty Hester dated August 28, 1955, Flannery O’Connor wrote: “If you live today you breathe in nihilism. In or out of the Church, it’s the gas you breathe.”[1. Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being, hereafter HB (New York: Far … [Read more...]
Anger Reconsidered
January 27, 2022 by Julia Hejduk
Note: This essay first appeared on the Christ-Animated Learning Blog with Christian Scholar’s Review. The Prince of Peace said, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mt 10:34). Amid the ubiquitous anger of present America, espec … [Read more...]
Reconsidering Religious Liberty
How to Read Dignitatis Humanae
September 24, 2021 by Dr. Joshua Madden
Two years ago Pope Francis made a visit to the United Arab Emirates where he spoke at an interreligious meeting, offering several comments on fraternity, peacemaking, and religious liberty. At the outset of his message, he spoke of the need … [Read more...]
Large Catholic Families as Prophetic Signs
August 30, 2021 by Bob Filoramo
The American fertility rate in 2018 was 1.7. The birth rate was 11.96. The American fertility rate in 2019 was, again, 1.7; the birth rate rose slightly to 11.99. “Fertility rate” is the average number of children born to a woman during her … [Read more...]
Discovering the Pearl of Great Price
Ratzinger on Relativism in the West
July 15, 2021 by Fr. Matthew Gonzalez
In the wake of a progressively globalized society, namely, the integration of the various cultures, markets, and political convictions, the world faces the question of determining a principle constituent of unification.[1. Joseph Ratzinger, … [Read more...]
The Death Penalty Is a Failed Sacrifice
June 3, 2021 by E. Tyler Graham
The final abolition of the death penalty in the 2018 revision of the Catechism[1. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2267.] and follow-up confirmation in the latest Pope Francis encyclical, Fratelli tutti,[2. Pope Francis, Fratelli … [Read more...]
Finding God in Our Secular Age: Ignatian Insights
June 3, 2021 by Deacon Edward McCormack, PhD
Ministry in Our Secular Age Any person who preaches regularly, and who is engaged in pastoral ministry in the Western world, does so under the invisible but all-pervasive influence of our secular age. The secular age is the … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – May 2021
May 20, 2021 by Book Reviews
Under Siege: No Finer Time to be a Faithful Catholic. By Austin Ruse. Reviewed by Matthew Kappadakunnel. (skip to review) Retrieving Augustine’s Doctrine of Creation. By Gavin Ortlund. Reviewed by Fr. Stephen Rocker. (skip to r … [Read more...]
John Henry Newman: A Saint for Times of Trial, Conflict, and Crisis
May 7, 2021 by Dr. Peter Kahn
On October 13, 2019, the Church canonized John Henry Newman, the great nineteenth-century convert from Anglicanism to the Catholic Church. Newman’s canonization is a gift from God to a Church that is in need of the wisdom contained in his w … [Read more...]
The Dangers of Safety
April 9, 2021 by Fr. Sean O'Brien
We had a pre-existing condition, but we didn’t know it. Before the days of COVID, I was aware that I was in a safety-based culture. We could think of the expansion of insurance (I bought a phone recently and was automatically involved in an … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – April 2021
April 9, 2021 by Book Reviews
The Sacraments: Discovering the Treasures of Divine Life. By Rev. Matthew Kauth. Reviewed by Aaron Martin. (skip to review) Telling Stories That Matter: Memoirs and Essays. By Marvin R. O’Connell. Reviewed by Christopher Siuzdak. (skip t … [Read more...]
Coming Home for Easter: The Challenge and a Method
March 26, 2021 by Fr. Richard Gribble, CSC
Steven Spielberg’s 1982 motion picture classic E. T. — The Extraterrestrial captured the hearts and minds of moviegoers around the world, with its combination of comedy, drama, and tragedy. The plot of the film described E.T.’s quest to “go … [Read more...]
Male and Female He Created Them: Ecumenical Reflections
December 23, 2020 by Eduardo Echeverria
Confusion. Division. Chaos. Heresy. These terms describe the effects of the serious flirtations with the Zeitgeist currently afflicting to a lesser or greater degree the Catholic Church — see the German and Belgium episcopacy — and other chu … [Read more...]
A Conversation about Cancel Culture
December 11, 2020 by Dr. Joseph R. Hollcraft
Over Thanksgiving break, a friend of mine asked me, “What is meant by the phrase cancel culture?” I thought the best way to get at the answer was to ask him a question of my own, “What does it mean to talk about culture?” That simple questio … [Read more...]
Recent Comments