Remember those comic book ads for X-Ray vision glasses and you were worried that if someone used them they could see you naked? I never sent away to get a pair, but my friend Christian LeBlanc–who is probably one of the world’s best catechists–writes here about how he uses this idea to help teach kids about the reality of the sacraments. When discussing sacraments with 6th graders, I always emphasize that the physical part of a sacrament is more than... Read more

Was Pope Pius XII – the pope during the second World War a Nazi sympathizer or a heroic savior of the Jews? The battle has raged over how much Pius XII knew, what he did or didn’t do and what he could have done and didn’t do. Those on the attack like John Cornwell (who wrote Hitler’s Pope) suppose that Pope Pius was a secret anti-Semite sympathetic to the “final solution” of the concentration camps. The Myth of Hitler’s Pope counters the... Read more

To understand what’s going on in Iraq and Syria we really have to understand the religious dimension of the strife. Here’s a simple explanation: First we have to understand that the religious strife is totally linked with tribal loyalties. A good parallel is the strife in Northern Ireland. You had Irish Catholics in the South and Protestants in the North, but the Protestants were descendants from Scottish Protestants who were imported to Ireland, so it’s not only religious it’s ethnic.... Read more

In the fundamentalist Bible church I attended as a child we would regularly have long sermons about the “end times”. These were based on an interpretative system of the Bible called “Dispensationalism”. The roots of this theology were the idea that history could be broken down into various “dispensations” or time periods and that God behaved differently and different things happened to the human race in these different dispensations. Part of this teaching was that the “rapture” would take place... Read more

Once again the Daily Telegraph has the guts to publish a well written, clearly argued piece that cuts across the liberal orthodoxy. There’s a fuss in England at the moment because state funded schools in predominantly Asian communities are being taken over by Muslims with an agenda. They are loading the school board and attempting to turn the schools into Muslim academies. Allison Pearson writes here about the blind foolishness of shallow multiculturalism. The Brits, like most liberal Europeans, have... Read more

An email today outlines some of the problems with the Catholic Church today: I read the article you wrote for This Rock re. the supernatural. I was somewhat disappointed because I live in a house that was once haunted(by human spirits, not demons). I wanted to learn the Churches teaching on paranormal activity, and was disappointed to find very little. I got no help from Catholic clergy. My first clue that I was not alone in my house was an... Read more

London’s Daily Telegraph really is the world’s best news source. Compared to the American papers and networks with their mix of shallow left wing ideologies and celebrity gossip, the Telegraph offers sensible conservative, sound and objective reporting. This article by Peter Osborne, combined with embedded links, explains succinctly and brilliantly the horrible morass in the Middle East. If you want to understand why the Middle East is dissolving into a state of anarchic terror, bloodshed and tribalistic slaughter–all motivated by... Read more

Lest you are somewhat dismayed at times over the gloomy news of the state of our culture, be of good cheer. Deacon Kandra reports here that the Catholic Church ain’t going out of business anytime soon. Indeed, the church continues to grow around the world  and the twentieth century was boom time. Viewed globally the Church experienced  a spectacular growth over the twentieth century which shows little sign of slowing. In 1900 there were roughly 266 million Catholics in the... Read more

A good question came up in the comment box regarding this post okaying a little tattoo for a Catholic boy. A parishioner asked if it was okay to get a tattoo since a verse in Leviticus forbids it. I explained that in Old Testament times pagan people had tattoos as a way of making a blood sacrifice to their pagan gods and signing their bodies as a way of showing their devotion to the demon gods. He was hardly doing... Read more

Video of an Ecumenical Meeting of Seminarians from UTS and the Staff of National Catholic Reporter This article from the HuffPo trumpets the news that New Yorks’ Union Theological Seminary has voted unanimously to divest from fossil fuels. For those who are unfamiliar with UTS, it bills itself as the flagship of American Progressive Protestant theology. What this means is that the financial fat cats who bankroll UTS will start weeding out all investments in fossil fuel companies from their... Read more