A tragic and dramatic event passed almost unnoticed in Europe and much of the world. Yet one more, indeed the second, country took the infamous step of enshrining procured abortion into its constitution. On March 1, the tiny duchy of Luxembourg joined France and became the second nation in the world to … Read more
Over the last decade, Canada has become ever more like a dystopian Marxist state and less like a free Western country. Its leaders seem to be faithfully following a maxim of Joseph Stalin, “Ideas are more powerful than guns.” Indeed, ideas are powerful, and Canadian officials are taking care that contrary ideas … Read more
On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges—the case that forced all states to acknowledge, facilitate and conduct homosexual “marriages.” To its supporters, and many of its opponents, the Supreme Court’s decision appeared final. The Rubicon had been crossed. The Court had … Read more
Faith, along with hope and charity, form the three theological virtues. Each has God as its object. In his Theology of Christian Perfection, the renowned Spanish theologian Fr. Royo Marin explains that “the theological virtues are the most important virtues in the life of a Christian, because they are the basis and … Read more
The debate over the hiring of Prof. Susan Ostermann as director of Notre Dame’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies is over. It triggered a massive uproar that surprised many by its intensity. In the end, the appointment was a carefully managed and measured defeat for the school’s administration, which was … Read more
“In the end, Marx’s tragic vision is one where the descent is final—an abyss where revolution consumes its own, and redemption is neither sought nor granted. It is a world abandoned to its illusions, where humans, having cast off the divine, are left to wander in the wreckage of their own making.” … Read more
“If you are not calling on the one true God and Jesus, His Son (or the Blessed Virgin Mary, the saints, or St. Michael and the good angels), there is only one other spiritual option, and that is Satan.” “Will Satan reward his human minions for their servitude? No. Rather, he will … Read more
Saint Katharine Drexel, the second American canonized saint, was born into a wealthy family in Philadelphia in 1858. Her father was an international banker and philanthropist accustomed to spending each evening in prayerful vigil. Although her mother passed away a few weeks after Katharine’s birth, her stepmother Emma Bouvier, wealthy in her … Read more
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Catholic Church in the Netherlands experienced a revival that was at least on par with France and perhaps stronger than anywhere else in the world. At that time, the Dutch Bishops had the reputation of being Ultramontane, even though they avoided controversies and … Read more
There is a friendship crisis in America. The number of Americans who say they have no close friends has quadrupled since 1990. Lower-income Americans are far more likely to report feelings of loneliness or social isolation, and 31 percent of those aged 18-29 report feeling lonely all or most of the time, … Read more