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All Catholic commentary from February 2025
St. Vincent Ferrer—On the Purification of Mary
“This present feast is one of the greater of the whole year... Because there are three grades of sanctity which we celebrate in this feast.”
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My grandmother, the emergent Catholic right, and why Massimo misses it
"I was not wrong," writes Wolfgang of his 1990s plunge into Catholic conservatism. "I was early." The goals those 1990s Catholic groups sought to achieve may now be accomplished—with far greater effectiveness—by today's Catholic conservatism.
True God and True man: The Practical Paradox
Jesus – true God-- leads us to the Father: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (Jn.14:6) Jesus – true man – humanizes reverence with His divine love as true God.
Should I add great Catholic essays to CatholicCulture.org’s library?
Though she may be often remembered now for the support she gave to a troubled Francis Thompson, author of the very well-known poem “The Hound of Heaven”, Alice Meynell was a fine poet and essayist in her own right.
“I am a human being”: The Elephant Man (1980), w/ Andrew Petiprin
Andrew Petiprin joins James and Thomas to discuss the late David Lynch's most uplifting film, The Elephant Man. The film is based on the real Victorian-era life of Joseph Merrick, a man who suffered terrible abuse because of his extreme deformities, yet whose human dignity was ultimately recognized and allowed to flourish by those who rescued him and cared for him with Christian compassion.
190—Fulton Sheen, Convert Maker—Cheryl C.D. Hughes
A new biography of Ven. Fulton Sheen gives special attention to his high-profile converts, but reveals many other interesting facets of his life as well. Author Cheryl Hughes joins to discuss Sheen’s at times shockingly direct evangelization methods, his outstanding television presence, his lifelong struggle with vanity and ambition, and the mistreatment he suffered from his rival, Cardinal Spellman.
Should Biden be excommunicated for joining the Masons?
So where does that leave Joe Biden, who has continued to profess his Catholic faith, attend Mass, and receive Communion regularly? He is forbidden to receive Communion. But then he was already forbidden to receive Communion!
The Conundrum of Parish Involvement
Pastors rightfully seek ways to involve the lay faithful in as many aspects of parish life as possible. It’s a simple calculus: the more the faithful engage in various parish events, the more they come to love their parish. They will then support more events, make the parish seem alive and attractive to others, and, most importantly, their efforts will push them to grow deeper in their own faith.
WHO should pay to help migrants?
The focus of the current debate is on what our federal government should do. A debate on what we should do, through our own private efforts, would be a much healthier discussion.
St. John Henry Newman—The Oxford Sermons | 1. The Philosophical Temper, First Enjoined by the Gospels
"The philosopher might speculate, but the theologian must submit to learn."
Book Review: Saints Around the World
Honest Review of Meg Kilmer-Hunter's book Saints Around the World and the 5 volume collection Saints Around the World for Little Ones. Highly recommended for children ages 6-12.
A remarkable resurgence of Catholic education and formation
Granted that these superior institutions educate only a very small minority of those who go to ostensibly “Catholic” colleges or seek education “in the Jesuit tradition” (a sobriquet increasingly trotted out to mask a lack of Catholicity), they are an important sign of vitality in American Catholicism. But what I find most interesting at this moment is the extension of this authentically Catholic intelligence into vocational training on the one hand, and serious scientific endeavor on the other.
Best Practices of the Church
Only Mary is without sin. We are not. His Holiness Pope Peter denied Jesus three times. His Excellency Archbishop Matthew the Evangelist was among the hated tax collectors. His Eminence Judas Cardinal Iscariot betrayed Jesus. The sins of the twelve would keep parish gossips busy.
Trump’s antics and the highest human value
Obviously it is better to accept what has been wrought through bad political leadership in the past and proceed now to implement a solidly prudential immigration policy with adequate controls. That’s not a simple task, but it is clearly simpler—and far less harmful to those involved—than the mass deportation of millions of desperate immigrants who have already arrived.
5.4 St. Gregory of Narek: Patron Saint of Armenia
In the first episode on St. Gregory of Narek (c. 945-1003), Dr. Papandrea introduces one of the newest additions to the list of Doctors of the Church. Gregory was an Armenian monk, scholar, poet, and saint, who was praised by Pope St. John Paul II.
The Pope’s disastrous letter on immigration
In his letter Pope Francis is on very firm ground when he states the Church’s unshakable commitment to human dignity. No one— in the Catholic Church or in the Trump administration— should have objected to that principle. But the Pope’s distorted application of the principle now makes it easier to dismiss even that sound first principle.
A Valentine’s-Day challenge to young single Catholic men
When I heard today’s Gospel reading, because it was Valentine’s Day, I thought of the young men who, it seems, need a miracle to loosen their tongues so that they can pop the question.
Happy Ordo Amoris Day
Happy Valentine's Day! Or Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day! Or, this year, let's just declare it Ordo Amoris Day. Here's why.
The Crown of Human Perfection
God did not allow sin to obliterate His handiwork. We remain images of God, even in our fallen state.
The Marx Brothers w/ James Matthew Wilson
Poet and philosopher James Matthew Wilson joins the podcast to discuss two films by the Marx Brothers (Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera). Wilson also reads one of his poems featuring allusions to the Marx Brothers, and talks about the letters written between Groucho Marx and T.S. Eliot.
Recommended aids to improve your prayer life in Lent
Periodically I try to recommend a few worthwhile books for devotional use during Lent, concentrating on what might have been newly released by trusted Catholic publishers.
When Catholics praise single parenthood
Prior to the sexual revolution, there was always a stigma on having a child out of wedlock and on the behavior that leads to it. Every child is a gift from God, but parents who deprive their child of a loving family do not deserve the congratulations due to spouses who follow God’s ordinance to be fruitful and multiply in honorable wedlock. If we want fewer abortions and fewer suffering children, we will need to return to the social guardrails of old, including a healthy social pressure.
Free Liturgical Year Volume 3 Released: LENT
Our liturgical year ebooks include all the liturgical day information for each season just as it appears on CatholicCulture.org. These offer a rich set of resources for families to use in living the liturgical year in the domestic church. Resources include biographies of the saints to match each feast day, histories of the various celebrations and devotions, descriptions of customs from around the world, prayers, activities and recipes.
St. John Henry Newman—The Oxford Sermons | 2. The Influence of Natural and Revealed Religion Respectively
"The philosopher aspires towards a divine principle; the Christian, towards a Divine Agent."
The ‘ordo amoris’ and the bottom line
St. John Henry Newman explained the concept with his characteristic elegance, where he describes the love of family and friends— of those in the first concentric circle, if you will— “as the source of more extended Christian love.”
191—How the Church Invented Musical Notation—Christopher Page
The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years, by the great English musicologist Christopher Page, covers the development of Christian liturgical music from its origins as an elaboration of the role of the lector to its flourishing in the monastic and cathedral singing schools of France, as Roman chant was spread across Europe. One of the most important developments was the gradual development of a system of notation in the late first millennium.
Our politics must arise from a counter-cultural Christianity
These observations are incontestable. Without them, the only possibility is moral and political chaos. Therefore, the first step is to get people to acknowledge that an objective standard of human behavior is essential to human flourishing, and that without advertence to such a standard there is no possibility for controlling the misguided excesses which so frequently undermine the common good.
Speculating about the Pope’s health
After a few days of those anodyne Vatican bulletins, reports in the mainstream media began to say that the Pope’s condition was worsening. Actually I think it would be more accurate to say that after his first two or three days in the hospital, the Pope’s condition was pretty much the same, but the few details leaking out of the Gemelli complex were revealing that his illness had been, from the outset, more serious than the Vatican wanted to admit.
My thoughts as Pope Francis nears his death—or doesn’t
If our papa needs help, our goal must be to help him. Not out of any partisanship, any “party spirit,” this faction vs. that faction. But out of “the reality of my baptismal promises.”
The Pedagogy of Forgiveness
The rigors of Christian love purify our motivations for forgiveness. Justice gives mercy its meaning. So we must love justice and call evil by its name.
All about Lent and Holy Week: Book Review
Catholic Culture Book Review of All About Lent and Holy Week: Sharing the Seasons of Repentance and Salvation with Children by Katherine Bogner and illustrated by Shari Van Vranken.
5.5 St. Gregory of Narek: Doctor of Mercy
St. Gregory of Narek (c. 945-1003), was an Armenian saint - a monk, scholar, poet, and hymn writer. Praised as a saint by Pope St. John Paul II, who called by him the “great Marian doctor of the Armenian Church,” St. Gregory of Narek was officially proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis in 2015–one of the most recent additions to the list of the Doctors of the Church.
100 tough questions for Catholics: Read responsibly!
Sadly, even when these questions are asked of fellow Catholics, the answers given may be either inadequate or false. And when that is the case, the result will be a declining faith and commitment on the part of the questioner. By selecting a broad range of questions with this precise problem in mind, Bonagura provides intelligent answers that impart the understanding necessary to get on the right track…and keep going deeper into the Faith.
When diocesan abuse policies violate canon law
So the publication of lists of priests who have been “credibly accused” is an injustice, a breach of canon law, an offense against the healthy Anglo-American legal assumption that someone is innocent until proven guilty, and a violation of Vatican guidelines. Yet many American dioceses have published such lists.
A just man in an unjust war
He lost both those battles, was deposed, and lived in exile, in poverty, while the bloodshed continued. But in the process, by his fidelity, he won a more precious crown.
A pivotal moment—for both State and Church
When nations seek to be dominant throughout the whole world, one of two things seems to be the case: Either they are looking for domestic wealth and power, in which case their distant “possessions” suffer exploitation, or they are looking for sources of cheaper production, in which case their own people suffer through the outsourcing of work. In the second case, it is only a slight exaggeration to observe that the rich become jet-setting tycoons and the poor become…opioid addicts.
Soul Garden: A Catholic Mother’s Collective
Catholic Culture's Book review for Soul Garden: a Catholic Mother's Collective edited by Hope Schneir and Sia Hoyt, printed by Ignatius Press.
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