As is well-known, sex, marriage, children, and familial relationships are the most universal cultural classifications in history. Rapid and radical changes in these areas, as we seem to be experiencing at present affect   us all.   Western culture is built on thousands of years of understanding marriage, sex, and family life in traditional ways. To assume that we can redefine these understandings without radically affecting the culture is naive. Codification of same-sex marriage is tantamount to codified endorsement of homosexuality. From the standpoint of the Catholic Church this affirms in their disorder people suffering from same-sex attraction, eliminating the stigmas that might have stymied the more introspective souls from fully giving themselves over to it. Indeed, thinking on the low percentages of homosexual couples actually marrying where “same-sex marriage” has been legalized, and the derision for traditional marriage witnessed in the writings of homosexua...

A CHRISTMAS WISH FOR ALL! Show forth, we pray thee, Lord, thy power and come, and with thy great strength assist us, so that by the aid of thy grace, the work that is hindered by our sins may be hastened by thy merciful forgiveness: who art God, living and reigning with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.    —Opening Prayer for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, 1962 Missal

I have been most impressed over the last decade with the formation of priests emanating from the Archdiocese of Detroit's Sacred Heart Major Seminary , though many  Catholics with whom I am acquainted would disagree. Of these I suspect a sampling of their concern would go something like this: "They appear to be more concerned about titles, clerical attire, fancy vestments, distance between themselves and their parishioners, and they focus more on what makes them distinctive than on their vocation to wash the feet of others (Jn 13:14–17), to lead with humility and to show the compassionate face of God to all. What concerns people, in other words, is clericalism ." Could there be an initiative to denigrate many young priests in the  Church  from within the Church itself, even from fellow priests. by accusing them of clericalism? Pope Francis himself  in  his recent Apostolic Exhortation  Evangelii Gaudium.  has spoken out against careerism and...

In Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis has plainly defended the absolute nature of Catholic Dogma and Tradition, i.e., the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His Apostolic Deposit of Faith. He comprehends the collegial nature of the See of Peter without sacrificing universal jurisdiction, infallibility, and indefectibility set down in Vatican II. I see him calling the Church back to the radical center of the Gospel in furthering the New Evangelization in order to save souls. Perusal of cyberspace reveals that Francis is forcing the heterodox to confront their heresy while challenging the radical traditionalists to contemplate excessive legalism while sometimes ignoring the missionary call of the Body of Christ. In the ever-increasing secular world, with materialism, commercialism, hedonism, occultism, individualism, and atheism legion, the Body of Christ is called to bring the joy of the Gospel to souls. The Apostolic Deposit of Faith as preserved and interpreted by the Catholic Chur...

Did you ever notice that when people take issue with Catholic teaching, those things with which they take issue bear directly or vicariously on their sexual lives — homosexuality, same-sex “marriage,” premarital sex, adultery, contraception, masturbation, population control, abortion, divorce, remarriage, in vitro fertilization, etc . Remember Our Lord’s words on this: "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man." Let us now add to this list readily available pornography. My advice to those who still doubt in our sexually-befuddled world and its iniquitous offspring, pornography is that it is a fatal error not to observe “how Lucifer actually works and why he is so intent on perverting our sexuality.”  Indeed, a Catholic underst...

I began my book noting the ignorance of Catholics about what the Second Vatican Council really teaches, and concluded with one final such teaching: …a monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the whole history of man. The battle was joined from the very origins of the world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord has attested. Caught in this conflict, man is obliged to wrestle constantly if he is to cling to what is good, nor can he achieve his own integrity without great efforts and the help of God's grace. Our Lord commands us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." The slothful Catholic risks a terrible consequence for failure here: “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.” With so man...

ROSS DOUTHAT AS I have noted in these posts, one of the brightest stars on the Catholic front is NYT Times columnist Ross Douthat . Ross writes of late that full Catholics, those who adhere to the teachings of the Church, all of them, can maintain their faith vs. modernity “only to the extent that you separate yourself from the American and Western mainstream,” or submit to the culture at large. He sees no middle position, which in my mind describes most Catholics today, cultural “cafeteria” Catholics who attend Mass when it behooves them, have “issues with Catholic teaching,” and do not live so as to distinguish themselves all that much from what Ross styles the “mainstream.” Ross argues that it is in this present situation that the Holy Father is relevant, as the exhilaration around his papacy is a reply to Francis’ desire to engage the “lapsed-Catholic, post-Catholic and non-Catholic world.” In the Church the Holy Father’s desire centers around the “new evangelization,” ...