UPDATE: This post may make more sense with this post as its partner. Catholics are in a unique position in regards to the gay marriage debate, one ignored by Catholics themselves and those lobbying for redefinition. Granted, it's a position more nuanced than the culture would like, and it may very well mean involving oneself in intellectual discussion that transcends Facebook profile pictures with all the influence of Kony2012, so beware. I'm going to try my best to express this position, … [Read more...]

I love being Catholic, not only for the vast horizons the Church opens before my searching eyes and thirsting heart, but also for the mighty, wooden doors she closes in front of my inquiring nose. That the Church dares -- in a world nauseous with false egalitarianism -- to declare things too holy to be dressed in anything but a finery I cannot afford, a secrecy I cannot know, and a reverence I can only hope to attain -- all this convinces me that she alone is the throne of Eternity on earth. In … [Read more...]

An unusual post for an unusual day. I'm transcribing my notebook because I don't have anything particularly structured to say about our Holy Father's resignation: He, the scholar by the window, braving a life of declarative sentences and scriptural exegesis, was swept up into ecstasy by the Holy Spirit to dwell in high places with Him. On the day of his anointing he wore a sweater underneath his finery, for it was cold. "Pray for me," he said to me, "that I may not flee for fear of the … [Read more...]

“In the end, therefore, money will be the one thing people will desire, which is moreover only representative, an abstraction." -Kierkegaard When a male of the Mandan Indians fasts for three days, shaves his head, and hangs from splints pushed through his skin to prove his manhood to the universe he is not thinking of traditional Mandan culture. He is becoming a man. Nor is the Mexican Catholic, crawling on her hands and knees to venerate an image of the Blessed Mother, … [Read more...]

Christians ruin mind-blowing concepts by hollowing them into a phrase, titling their banal rock albums after them, and otherwise extracting from them their philosophical fiber, leaving behind the rattling husks we call cliche. We did it to "Jesus saves", we did it to "God loves you", and I'm afraid that -- if I don't write this blog post right now -- it will happen to the phrase, "Life is a gift." Life is experienced as a given life. This is not a Christian experience. It is a human … [Read more...]

The injustice of abortion is the free choice of a woman who sees it working towards her good. This has lead to the common call for men to remove themselves from the debate surrounding the injustice. It is, after all, a woman's issue. While I sympathize with the thought, it doesn't hold to the light of reason. Women bear pregnancy and birth, as they physically and emotionally bear the sad experience of abortion. As such, they are certainly the most experientially trustworthy spokeswomen for … [Read more...]