A guest post from my dear friend Andrew Oullette: Many people that first hear the title of Mary as Coredemptrix think, “Wait. What?! Mary…Coredemptrix?! Blasphemy!” Yet we cannot be too quick to judge this title without looking at the meaning of the word Coredemptrix, the evidence for it in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and discovering what it means to us as the Body of Christ that Mary is the Coredemptrix. Before we can say what Coredemptrix means we... Read more
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... Read more
The eternal can be well worn, but never worn out. It is always experienced as an over-abundance, an aching paradox between the more-than-can-be-imagined and the never-enough. The eternal cannot be grasped, contained, or experienced at one time, and so Van Goghs are gazed at again and again, the act of sex tends toward a sex life, and I cannot outgrow Bach’s Cello Suites — I hear more of them in every hearing. Eternity demands repetition, a ritual of again-and-again played... 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... Read more
It is very, very good to be Catholic. We have the remarkable capacity to actually care about the conclave. The media, bless them, cannot fathom the explosion of love happening here, and are doomed to report with all the banality, divisiveness and cluelessness with which one goes about reporting an American presidential election. They’re talking about the conclave, sure — it’s political ramifications, the potential ideological leaning of the next Pope, the “necessary” changes the Church needs to make in... Read more
When I am in love I am uncertain, and my uncertainty makes me certain that I am in love. I am uncertain why my beloved loves me. In her gaze, there is no understanding that “I am somewhere near a 7, she near an 8, we have these common interests and this mutual, biochemical attraction, and the sum total of all these things is the reason for her love.” Her love remains a mystery. In fact, any love that I’ve... Read more
If your music is bad, and you're praying that God will do something great with it, stop praying and make better music. Read more
Young people are human. If we understood this reality we wouldn’t have crappy youth ministry programs, worse catechesis, politicians on Twitter, the wild success of Ke$ha, and a bored and banal culture. But we do suffer these tortures, for we are convinced that being young and able to navigate Facebook transforms the human person into a locus around which the universe turns, the deciding, haloed blueprint for the construction of culture, religion, and politics. The Youth Vote, the Young Voice,... Read more
A guest post for the upcoming 40 Days for Life campaign. It was the March for Life Weekend, 2012. I called my dad to hear a familiar voice and was talking with him about snow conditions on the ski trails back home as I rounded the corner from K Street to 16th and saw the scene outside Planned Parenthood. A mass of people stood outside the clinic, some of them in heavy winter coats, some of them in religious habits, and... 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... Read more
Bad Catholic
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In