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 […]
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The 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 reading“Successful” Marriage and the Catholic Faith
Marriage and family are in the news. Pope Francis has just convened an extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops to discuss “the crisis of the family” in the modern world. The media and even some hierarchs have already floated proposals for addressing the crisis. But what do we mean by the crisis in family […]
Continue readingLove and Sacrifice
Want to know the secret of happiness? The secret is that there is no secret. Happiness is love, communion, and fellowship. Happiness is meaning in the context of relationship. We all know this. Scientific research confirms it. Every great religious and philosophical tradition has taught it. So why do we find it so difficult sometimes? […]
Continue readingWhy ISIS Threatened the Pope
ISIS, the Sunni Islamist movement now wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria, announced its intention to assasinate Pope Francis. ISIS representatives claim the Pope “bears false witness” against Islam and is “the greatest exponent of the Christian religions.” For that, apparently, he deserves to die. What has the Pope said about Islam that they find […]
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