Fr. James Martin does a pretty reasonable job of picking over the emerging narratives: Re #CovingtonHighSchool: I will be happy to apologize for condemning the actions of the students if it turns out that they were somehow acting as good and moral Christians. The last thing I want is to see Catholic schools and Catholic students held in any disrepute. 1/ — James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) January 20, 2019 Do read the whole thread. Also there is this very careful... Read more
Of course, the backlash, led by such Christianist Court prophets as Matt Walsh, is massively depressing. Only the most wrong people on planet Earth could see an exhortation to be a gentleman and not a bullying jerk and decide they are so offended they must boycott Gillette forever. It says everything about you, not Gillette, when the common sense exhortation “Be a gentleman and not a selfish brute” is ridiculed as “effeminate”. It also says everything about your guilty conscience... Read more
He writes over at First Things: Last week, a controversy erupted over a book I assigned in a five-student advanced literature seminar at the Franciscan University of Steubenville (FUS) during the Spring 2018 semester. Not wishing to further divide our university community, I trusted that my superiors at FUS would handle the matter appropriately and I refrained from public comment. But many observers have assumed that Franciscan University’s decision to remove me from my role as chair of the English... Read more
I regard the GOP Cult of Trump as the gravest domestic threat the US has faced since the Civil War. It is a cult of malignant and cruel sadists who hear “We’re going to build the wall, and Americans who have lost their homes in natural disasters are going to pay for it!” and *orgasms* over such cruelty. It is wilfully stupid and wasteful, as well as treasonous and a toxic force in the life of the Church and American... Read more
Archbishop Viganò congratulates Cardinal McCarrick of Washington at a gala dinner sponsored by the Pontifical Missions Societies in New York in May 2012 (CNS) Look at the picture. It says it all. Vigano (on the left) was the one man on US soil from 2011-2016 who could have done something about McCarrick (on the right). By his own confession, Vigano knew about McCarrick’s crimes. But, as you see here, he wined and dined and feted McCarrick with papal medallions. They... Read more
There is no prolife party. There is the party that is 100% responsible for the creation (via Roe) and entrenchment (via Casey) of our abortion regime and then there are the Democrats. Roe and Casey are GOP creations. Totally. And in addition, the GOP has authored and passed 8 spending bills since Trump was inaugurated, all of which funded Planned Parenthood. Did they shut down the government rather than fund PP? Of course not. And did the prolife movement expect... Read more
G.K. Chesterton once remarked that the task of the yellow journalist is to shout “ADMIRAL BANGS IS DEAD!” to a public that never knew Admiral Bangs had been born. A good journalistic liar has a knack for getting his audience ginned up about the end of a story of which his audience has no notion of a beginning, in order to get the audience stampeded in the direction he wishes. This is illustrated by one of the greatest yellow journalists... Read more
So a year or so ago, Dr. Stephen Lewis, who was, until this past Friday, the Chair of the English Department at Franciscan University, taught a class to students in which one of the texts was written by an atheist who is deeply hostile to the Faith. It included passages deeply insulting to the Blessed Virgin. Lewis is a devout and faithful son of the Church, a good teacher, and a good man. As Emily Stimpson Chapman writes: I know... Read more
Here is a guest column she asked me to run. I do so with pride: President Trump is threatening to grant himself dictatorial powers. He is making repeated statements about declaring a national emergency at the border and overriding Congress so that he can build his wall. Let’s be clear about this. Whatever is happening at the border has been going on for many decades, so it’s hardly an “emergency”. The emergency powers he’s talking about are for situations like... Read more
Catholic and Enjoying It!
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In