From college campuses in Indiana to bars in New York City, men and women are using technology, Tinder, to find available partners in the vicinity, for one thing only: sex.This is the marriage apocalypse. All of this endless swiping is producing men and women who have an infinite choices of sexual partners with no strings attached. How long before this has a serious effect on how you view members of the opposite sex? In the past few decades, the average age of first marriage has climbed significantly — to all-time highs of almost 30 for men and 27 for women. And the marriage rates have plummeted. There were 31 marriages per 1,000 women in 2014, compared to 1920, when it was 92 per 1,000. Pope Francis would not approve. What’s doubly depressing is that has affected the poor more than the rich. For college graduates, the rates of marriage have been almost unchanged. But among those with lower incomes, it’s plummeting, which leads to a vicious circle. Studies repeatedly show th...

The Sisters wanted people to know of their existence, so....

Mr. Patrick Boyden has penned a reflection   worth noting. In 2013 I wrote: Lest we forget, there were indeed reform-minded Council Fathers who responded to Pope John’s vision of the Church growing in spiritual riches as a fruit of the Council under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the hope that the faithful might through grace be aided in turning hearts and minds toward heavenly things.  Given what has been said thus far, it should not surprise the reader that many “liberal Catholics” view the pontificate of John Paul II as too “conservative,” and out of touch with the modern world, while the traditionalists view the writings and teachings of the Holy Father as modernist! Thus the schema of “liberal” (progressive, left) vs. conservative (traditional, right) which followed upon the close of Vatican II is wholly inadequate for explaining the present-day crisis of faith within the Church of Jesus Christ, though it is most unfortunate that usage of these terms persist...

The Atlantic magazine staged an LGBT Summit the other day with the redoubtable Ryan T Anderson as a contributor. The Atlantic -- as in general -- hews to the liberal line on “equality” in sexual matters, but its representative, Mary Louise Kelley, conducted a respectful interview with Anderson, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, in front of a live audience. It’s 20 minutes long, including three questions from the audience, but compulsory viewing for anyone who wants to get the conversation with the equality movement in this post-Obergefell era right. Anderson is a top scholar who disarms (reasonable) opponents with his genuine tolerance and makes the issues – even for those outside the USA -- crystal clear.  Note in particular his recent experience of having a hotel in Bermuda cancel a seminar booking at the last minute because he would be speaking against gay marriage, and why he would NOT take the hotel to court over such a thing, even though he has a bet...

I have chronicled in these pages evidence of Pope Francis' traditional views on marriage and family, which give the lie to heterodox claims that he is their man. The latest:    Pope Francis warned the bishops of Puerto Rico on Monday, Dear brothers in the Episcopate: I rejoice in being able to greet you on the occasion of the Ad Limina Apostolorum pilgrimage visit. It is my desire that (this visit) be a fruitful experience of communion for each one of you and for Church on its pilgrim journey in Puerto Rico. I thank His Excellency Roberto Octavio González Nieves, Archbishop of San Juan and President of the Bishops Conference for the words he addressed to me in the name of all of you. In that beautiful Caribbean archipelago was founded one of the first three dioceses that were established on the American continent. Since then, the Church’s history has been interwoven with the faithfulness and tenacity of its pastors, religious, missionaries and lay people that, res...

Ross Douthat joined  First Things   to deliver the Erasmus lecture, “The Crisis of Conservative Catholicism, ” on Monday, October 26th  at the Union League. Douthat is an Op-Ed columnist for the   New York Times   and the author of   Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics   (Free Press, 2012),   Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (Hyperion, 2005), and the co-author, with Reihan Salam, of   Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream   (Doubleday, 2008). He is the film critic for National Review . After listening to this remarkable synthesis of "the sifting like wheat" of certain Catholics these days, I offered the following comment: In 1972 the Pope of the Council, Paul VI, observed that seven years following the close of the Council conditions in the Church were such that it was as if “the Smoke of Satan has entered the Temple of God.” I have...

Massachusetts passes sex ed plan to teach anal sex to sixth graders | EAGnews.org : 'via Blog this'

Germain Grisez For 30 years, until 2009, Germain Grisez   was professor of Christian Ethics at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md. He is one of America’s most respected Catholic philosophers. He began his career teaching ethics at Georgetown in 1959. His 1965 book  Contraception and the Natural Law  was an important part of the debate over contraception, and he assisted Jesuit Father John Ford when Pope Paul VI called on him to serve on the Pontifical Commission for Population, Family and Birthrate prior to the drafting of the 1968 encyclical  Humanae Vitae . Both men's writings provided a counterpoint to those who suggested that birth control was not an intrinsic evil and the choice to use it should left to couples, and were instrumental in research for my chapter on Catholic sexual moral teaching.  His magnum opus ,  The Way of the Lord Jesus Christ , can be found both  online and in  print . He recently discussed the Second Va...

A Way Out of Porn Compulsion | Catholic Answers : 'via Blog this'

He is surely being sifted like wheat. Pro-Homosexual Priest to Speak at Catholic Theological Union : 'via Blog this'

'Cosmo' Praises Incest : 'via Blog this'