I had an opportunity a few weeks ago to address a group of student leaders about preaching the gospel on college campuses. The Gospel, I said, is fairly simple. There is a God. He loves you and desires to make you part of His family. His plan is not just for you as an individual, […]
Continue readingChristian Marriage: a Contemplative Vocation
There is a beautiful passage from the documents of the Second Vatican Council that teaches just this. In Gaudium et Spes, we read: . Christian spouses have a special sacrament by which they are fortified and receive a kind of consecration in the duties and dignity of their state. By virtue of this sacrament, as […]
Continue readingAnd He Created them Male and Female . . .
I received a call last week from a man who was considering being Catholic, but facing a difficulty. “I think I’m transgendered,” he told me. “How does this affect me?” The immediate answer, of course, is that no personal challenge is an absolute barrier to becoming Catholic. There is always a way, even if that […]
Continue readingThe Importance of Doing Nothing
The other day I was listening to Dr. Ray Guarendi on EWTN Radio. A woman called his show to explain that her husband was leaving her and their two small children in order to go after other women. She had appealed to the husband to stay “for the sake of the children.” The man’s response […]
Continue readingMartin Luther King, Jr.: Prophet of Common Sense
I have a friend who teaches ethics in a secular university. He is a Catholic. His employers are not friendly to his point of view. His challenge is teaching right and wrong in a world that no longer believes in right and wrong. More precisely, a world in which the only wrong is believing there […]
Continue readingOf Cheetahs, Cars, Girls, and Boys
I had an interesting conversation at a coffee shop a few weeks ago. My daughter and I were discussing modern “gender politics.” I was remarking on how the intelligentsia now frowns on labeling children “boys or girls.” A stranger (a woman) overheard our conversation and interrupted to let me know that she thought these new […]
Continue readingMean Catholics
I once had an argument with a non-Christian friend about a point of Christian apologetics. I thought I came off pretty well in the debate, and I was hoping my friend would concede the point. Instead, he said something I was not expecting. “But Dave,” he said, “I just don’t like Christians.” Ouch! Truth is […]
Continue readingThe Logic of Indulgences
Probably no part of the Catholic tradition has been more maligned than indulgences. The controversies of the sixteenth century have forever marred this tradition in the popular imagination. Most people cannot get over the hackneyed cliché that Catholics think they can buy their way into Heaven. But this is a gross distortion of Catholic teaching. […]
Continue readingTechnology and the Common Good
I went to a restaurant in Birmingham a few months ago and saw a family at lunch. Parents and children sat at the same table and ate in each other’s presence, but they were not together. Each one was immersed in his own computer, smart phone, or tablet. Communications technology, which promises to connect everyone, […]
Continue readingThe Beauty and Necessity of Christian Burial
. The month of November is an appropriate time to reflect on the important but neglected topic of care for the dead. As Catholics, we are accostomed to think of praying for the dead, especially on the Feast of All Souls. We don’t hear as much about our obligation to bury the dead, but this […]
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