I sat in on parts of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences annual plenary session last week and heard what amounted to a warning to America: Don’t go the way of secularism. That’s what this fight over religious liberty we are in amounts to. In my syndicated column this week, I write: To an American sitting in on the conference, some of its sessions amounted to a warning siren. A “religion of humanity” has taken hold of supposedly enlightened opinion... Read more
Steve Wagner gives some grounded analysis of what’s happening with the so-called Catholic vote here. Is it a problem for the president? Sure looks like it could be. This White House over-reached when it issued and then doubled-down on the HHS contraceptive/sterilization/abortion mandate. Even Joe Biden saw the political trouble coming. If you are a Catholic in America, be a discerning voter. It is part of being who we say we are. Read more
I just got back from Rome, where I ran into Fr. Thomas Williams at a Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences meeting at the Vatican. He is author of a most timely book, The World as It Should Be, and we discuss it here. Some of the interview: LOPEZ: Is there a single encyclical that speaks most directly to our day? FR. WILLIAMS: I am sure that papal encyclicals speak to different people in different ways. Personally, I think that several... Read more
In his Wall Street Journal column last week, on Paul Ryan’s battle with critics of his budget plan on moral principles, Bill McGurn quotes Dorothy Day: “We believe that Social Security legislation, now billed as a great victory for the poor and for the worker, is a great defeat for Christianity. It is an acceptance of the idea of force and compulsion.” Yup. That Dorothy Day. It’s a dangerous thing when politics tries to co-opt holiness. Because it is the... Read more
That quote came from Cardinal Dolan recently in a homily from his Fifth Avenue pulpit. Georgetown, inviting Kathleen Sebelius to speak at its commencement this month, says something quite different: For Georgetown, surrendering to the culture is a priority. Leading in that surrender is a priority. Catholic identity is something to be ashamed of unless is is ever-malleable — the Good News meant to adjust to the times rather than transform our hearts. Read more
I suspect this will be appreciated by readers and writers, via the Wedgewood Circle: But what is a good writer up to when he’s writing a book that will give the reader pleasure? First of all, he’s telling the truth. Bad books always lie. They lie most of all about the human condition, so that one never recognizes oneself, the deepest part of oneself, in a bad book. — Walker Percy Read more
You may have guessed that I am a proponent of making use of new technology to tell the Good News. But sometimes the new technology can get the best of us. Become a distraction. An obstacle. There are always warning signs. In his Sunday bulletin this weekend, Father George W. Rutler cautions (and empowers): A father recently bemoaned the fact that the iPod had deprived him of his teenage son. That is the son’s fault, but it is also the... Read more
I took this photo today at St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome today: The image is made manifest to this very day, as we celebrate the first anniversary of the beatification of Blessed John Paul II. A year ago today, the current pope said: Throughout the long journey of preparation for the great Jubilee he directed Christianity once again to the future, the future of God, which transcends history while nonetheless directly affecting it. He rightly reclaimed for Christianity... Read more
John Boehner has demonstrated a commitment to them. The Speaker’s social-justice project – one of them, closest to his heart – is some of poorest children in the city, served by the Consortium of Catholic Academies. Tonight in Washington, D.C., he will be headlining a fundraiser for the Paula Nowakowski Scholars Fund with the Consortium of Catholic Academies, benefitting District of Columbia children in the toughest areas of town. These kids are in Congress’s backyard and it is only fitting... Read more
Teach the children well, was the Sunday message from Fifth Avenue. From Timothy Cardinal Dolan’s homily: there is no more tried-and-true way of passing on our Catholic faith to our kids than by sacrificing to put them in a Catholic school. Data proves they persevere in the faith at higher rates, pray better, are more faithful to Sunday Mass, live gospel values, are more generous to their parish, even have happier marriages, volunteer more, and transmit the faith to their... Read more
Kathryn Lopez
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