On the Catholic Beat
Some Catholics today see their neighbor like an evil cartoon villain. That's unchristian, and dangerous. Read more
Some Catholics today see their neighbor like an evil cartoon villain. That's unchristian, and dangerous. Read more
If you didn’t know who Father James Altman was before last week, you probably know all about the outspoken culture warrior-priest from La Crosse, Wisconsin, by now. Father Altman set the Catholic press and blogosphere ablaze with a slickly-produced ten-minute video, set to dramatic music from The Passion of the Christ soundtrack, that definitively declared “You cannot be Catholic & a Democrat. Period” “Repent of your support of that party and its platform, or face the fires of hell,” says... Read more
When someone tells you, “I’m sorry if I said or did something to upset you,” you can usually be certain of a few things: They don’t think they did anything wrong. They don’t have contrition. They really think YOU are the problem. That’s the sense I saw from most people who read Bishop Michael Bransfield’s public apology letter, which was posted online a couple of weeks ago by the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. The Vatican’s Congregation of Bishops required Bransfield to... Read more
The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks happened in my second-to-last semester at Hunter College, which is in New York City. Needing some classes to finish my political science minor, I enrolled in a couple of courses on international relations that had a heavy focus on Islamic radicalization and terrorism. The general consensus I remember from those classes was that religious fundamentalism and political radicalization were the natural byproducts of corrupt totalitarian regimes in the Muslim world. The thinking was that... Read more
The Catholic Church in the United States, not the NBA, should be leading the charge against racism. Our priests should be just as comfortable talking about the need for racial justice as the professional athletes who wear Black Lives Matter T-shirts during pregame warm-ups. In a perfect world, every single Catholic bishop in the United States would speak as a unified national voice of conscience that wouldn’t hesitate, in the strongest possible terms, to condemn police brutality, systemic racism, white... Read more
The first rough draft of the Black Lives Matter story I wrote last week for Our Sunday Visitor was a little over 2,100 words. My editor jokingly sent me a gif of a lumberjack in the woods firing up a chainsaw to let me know what we’d be doing to that first draft I admittedly overwrote. The final product was still a healthy 1,600-word analysis of BLM, differentiating the social movement for racial justice from the decentralized organization of the... Read more
Last month, I covered a virtual panel discussion on racism organized by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life. The immediate headlines focused on Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington D.C. standing by his criticisms of the St. John Paul II National Shrine hosting a visit by President Donald Trump a day after the president’s Bible photo opp, which was made possible by federal agents using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse anti-racism protesters near the White... Read more
I interviewed Francesco Cesareo, the former chairman of the National Review Board, last week for Our Sunday Visitor on the completion of his eight years leading the committee that advises the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on clergy sex abuse matters. Our Sunday Visitor: On clergy sex abuse and accountability, where do you think we are now compared to where we were eight years ago? Francesco C. Cesareo: I think that there’s been progress in terms of really understanding that this issue... Read more
Michael Jordan's final shot with the Chicago Bulls won them their sixth championship. ESPN publicity photo. Read more
Last week, I interviewed Gloria Purvis, the lead host of EWTN Radio’s Morning Glory show, about some of the pushback and vitriol she was receiving online for her outspokenness on systemic racism, police brutality, the connection between anti-racism and pro-life and the Catholic response to bigotry. A day after my interview with Purvis was posted online by Our Sunday Visitor, the news broke that the Guadalupe Radio Network, which is EWTN’s largest affiliate, had dropped Morning Glory from its lineup.... Read more
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