Deacon Greg Kandra writes about a recent NY Times piece on priests who forsake their vows, and the women who help them do it. You would think from the way people talk that there’s something about a man in holy orders that just makes him irresistible. It’s as if there’s a force field emanating from that Roman collar that disables free will: Don’t get too close, ladies, or you might have no choice but to fall in love! Well, the don’t... Read more
One of the challenges in rearing our children is giving them an education that is faithful to Catholic teaching and is also physically and financially feasible. In many areas there are excellent Catholic schools; a few dioceses have taken brilliant initiatives to make it possible for all parishioners to attend, regardless of financial need. That said, we can hardly describe America in 2014 as a wonderland of orthodox parochial education. Over at CatholicMom.com this month, I’m discussing whether online Catholic... Read more
. . . We’re in the truck, and the middle-schooler makes some remark to me mentioning birth control — comment on the news, an advertisement, something a friend said, I can’t remember what. Eight-year-old eavesdropper in the back seat asks, “What’s birth control?” I avoid choking and give a low-key answer, along the lines of, “It’s a drug or device used to make it so your body can’t have babies, or has a hard time having babies.” End of discussion,... Read more
The recently launched online Catholic magazine Crux has an advice column up, in which a parent is told that her child’s obsession with the occult is probably no big deal: How would you feel if she were immersed in the Narnia books, written by the Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis, or in the dark and fantastical worlds imagined by J.R.R. Tolkein – a Catholic — in “The Lord of the Rings” novels? Many children in their pre-teen years find escape in fantasy.... Read more
The media is gushing over another high-profile suicide, which is of course high-profile precisely because the media chooses to gush over it. What sane people do, when they learn that someone is contemplating killing themselves, is gently suggest a chat with the doctor about pain management. Or they come over and help with the laundry. Dear Reporters, You are allowed to use both your brain and your moral sense when choosing how to cover a story. When someone calls you... Read more
To join the discussion about Rise of ISIS, a Threat We Cannot Ignore, or to order a copy, go here. This month at Patheos we’re discussing Jay Sekulow’s book Rise of ISIS. For a general review, check out Rebecca Hamilton’s comments here. She’s been documenting the state of affairs in Iraq all summer, so her perspective is well worth your consideration. What is this book? The Rise of ISIS is a call to arms, plain and simple. The authors document the heinous... Read more
Two girls and I pulled into St. Mary’s Greenville Saturday evening with half an hour to go before the vigil Mass. Thirty minutes is too long for tired children to prayerfully admire the architecture, and too short to go anyplace else. So we went to the playground across the soccer field, by the school. It took about five minutes on that playground for my eight-year-old to start campaigning for us to move to St. Mary’s and enroll her in the... Read more
Today at New Evangelizers, I write about “Small Groups.” By that what I mean is a handful of parishioners — say, less than 15 — getting together to do Christian stuff together. Learn about the faith, do a work of mercy, pray, whatever it is that particular group does. Your parish has to have small groups. If it doesn’t, everyone dies on the vine: But everybody – everybody – in your parish needs a small community. Human beings literally cannot socialize in large gatherings. You’ll notice... Read more
Karen Kelly Boyce has a good piece up at the Catholic Writers Guild on cementing your identity as a writer. Her two instructions are: 1. Tell people you are a writer. 2. Treat your writing seriously. Make an office, use it. For those of us transitioning from “I’d like to be a writer one day” to “I am a writer” there’s a vicious cycle of self-doubt: We don’t take ourselves seriously, so others don’t take us seriously, so we don’t take... Read more
If you want to understand the clerical food fight portion of this month’s Synod on the Family, what you need to know about is sexting. Not the Catholic kind, the other kind. Your must-read article for this month is The Atlantic’s feature Why Kids Sext. It’s long, and you should read the whole thing. Points to ponder as you do so: Louisa County is normal America. There’s nothing “different” that explains why there was suddenly a website full of students’... Read more
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