Spiritual Consolation Along ‘The Road’

BY Stephen Mirarchi

October 18-24, 2009 Issue

Until a few years ago, the majority of people familiar with Cormac McCarthy were graduate students in humanities, professors of English or attentive advanced-placement high schoolers. The latter were treated one year to a passage from the author’s philosophically dense novel The Crossing... READ MORE

A Sacrament in Search of a Theology: Confirmation, Part 1

BY Mark Shea

October 11-17, 2009 Issue

Confirmation has sometimes been called a sacrament in search of a theology. That’s because many Catholics wonder, “What exactly are we doing this for?” and celebrate it (if at all) mostly because, well, the Church says to do it and it seems like a nice rite of passage for teens passing into... READ MORE

Modern Lessons From America’s First Bishop

BY Kevin D. Roberts

October 11-17, 2009 Issue

Father John Carroll’s consecration as America’s first bishop — fittingly, on the feast of the Assumption 1790 — marked the Church’s transition from infancy to adolescence in our country. More than being mere Catholic history trivia, Archbishop Carroll’s tenure provides important... READ MORE

A Leader in the Service of Truth

BY Kathryn Jean Lopez

October 11-17, 2009 Issue

“The hope of this rising generation,” said Father Michael Keating, “sits on a hill with a Bauhaus-style bell tower cross here on the campus of the University of Mary." The bell tower — officially a "bell banner" — can be seen from miles away. Along with much of the stone and concrete... READ MORE

In Praise of Folly

BY Melinda Selmys

Postmodernism, Part 2

October 4-10, 2009 Issue

The fundamental disease of postmodernity is despair. Postmodernism is like a bereaved bride, weeping because her beloved is dead. There is nothing to console her — better if she were dead. Yet show her a reason to hope, and she will cling to it with all her strength.

Postmodernism has lost hope... READ MORE

Pray for a Harvest of Holy Priests

BY Father Salvatore DeStefano

October 4-10, 2009 Issue

No priest ever forgets his first day in the seminary. After all the discernment, he has left the job behind, the girlfriend behind, his own family and friends behind — all to journey down an unknown path, hoping and praying that he is doing God’s will. My first day was just like this.

We had... READ MORE

The Convert Clergy Conundrum

BY Father Dwight Longenecker

October 4-10, 2009 Issue

Tom was a Methodist minister for 30 years. He pastored a church with thousands of members, managed a large budget and employed 50 people. A married man with three grown children, Tom held a master’s degree in theology and a doctorate in pastoral counseling. He was a leader within his denomination... READ MORE

Washed, Justified, Sactified

BY Mark Shea

Baptism, Part 5

September 27-October 3, 2009 Issue

Naaman, the great Syrian general, had a little problem. He was a leper. His Israelite slave girl gave him news that a prophet of Israel, a great man named Elisha, might be able to help him out of his predicament. So, being a great man himself, he went to the prophet to ask for help. The reply came... READ MORE

All Eyes on Tyrannized Belmont Abbey

BY Gerald J. Russello

September 27-October 3, 2009 Issue

First the state came for Catholic hospitals. Now it’s coming for Catholic colleges.

In a remarkable act of government overreaching, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has charged Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina with potential discrimination against women. The reason? The... READ MORE

When in ‘Rome,’ Do as the Roman Christians Did

BY Father Michael E. Giesler

September 27-October 3, 2009 Issue

When people think of the early Christians, they often picture doomed individuals thrown onto the floor of the Colosseum to face starving lions. Or they may think of small congregations huddled in dark underground catacombs. While such popular depictions are certainly based in historical facts, the... READ MORE

Childlike Faith Is Its Own Reward

BY Donald DeMarco

September 20-26, 2009 Issue

Seamus O’Malley was down on his luck. He decided to play his last card and write a letter to God, asking him for $100 to tide him over. He folded the letter and placed it in an envelope on which he wrote but a single word: “God.”

The missive, naturally, went directly to the dead-letter... READ MORE

I Will Not Apologize for My Post-Abortive Faith

BY Theresa Bonopartis

September 20-26, 2009 Issue

If only the Church would leave women alone, there would be no guilt after abortion. Men, too, could send their babies to their deaths and not give it a second thought. All would be well in Abortionland.

Or so pro-abortion activists would have us believe. Are they right? Of course... READ MORE

The Center Cannot Hold

BY Melinda Selmys

Postmodernism in Focus, Part 1

September 20-26, 2009 Issue

Modernism has failed. This is the foundation upon which all postmodern thought, experience, art and action is based.

Modernism: the hope that humanity would be able to pull herself up by her own bootstraps, through the power of her natural dignity and by the fixed laws established by a... READ MORE

Prophet, Priest and King

BY Mark Shea

Baptism, Part 4

September 13-19, 2009 Issue

Most of us don’t wake up in the morning thinking of ourselves as The Fulfillment of Prophecy. Still and all, we are. Oh, not because we are any great shakes ourselves, of course. Left to our own devices apart from grace we’d only be the fulfillment of somebody’s worst nightmare. But, when we... READ MORE

The Vow of Celibacy Is a Sign of Eternal Life

BY Christopher Menzhuber

September 13-19, 2009 Issue

During holiday dinner conversations, I often have to field this question: “Do you think the Church will start ordaining married men to the priesthood?” There was a time when I would respond by explaining how, in certain Eastern Catholic rites, there are married clergy — and that, even within... READ MORE

St. Benedict and the Wood-Chopping Way

BY Father Dwight Longenecker

September 13-19, 2009 Issue

My younger brother Daryl was living with me in the parish when, one day, I came home a bit exasperated from trying to help an old woman named Gertrude. She was neurotic and overanxious about life. My brother listened to my grumbles and said, “What Gerty needs is wood-chopping... READ MORE

To Tax Churches Is to Muzzle Religion

BY Gerald J. Russello

September 6-12, 2009 Issue

While it is tempting to focus on the raging health-care debate or the Supreme Court now that Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been added to the bench, those concerned about religious liberty need to pay as much attention to what happens in the depths of the administrative state as to the decisions... READ MORE

Appalled by ‘The’ Psychological Association

BY Father Benedict Groeschel

September 6-12, 2009 Issue

As a member of the American Psychological Association for 36 years, I am filled with indignation at the recent statement of the APA that deems it “inappropriate” for therapists to treat homosexual clients.

Such therapy is called reparative therapy and has as its goal the establishment of a... READ MORE

Bailing Out Abortionists?

BY Edward Scott Lloyd

September 6-12, 2009 Issue

During the debate over the economic stimulus bill earlier this year, congressional Republicans and the American people rebuffed congressional Democrats for adding a $350 million provision for contraceptives. The provision was eventually struck from the bill, but it resurfaced in both the House and... READ MORE

Think Baby Positive, Not Pregnancy Negative

BY Deacon Lewis T. Ferris

August 23-September 5, 2009 Issue

I recently attended a very good lecture on natural family planning. True enough, it was designed to be a clinical talk by a medical doctor to a roomful of permanent deacons. However, halfway through the presentation, I realized that the whole discussion surrounding natural family planning often... READ MORE

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