An article by Steve Skojec has surfaced on social media in which he argues that traditionalist Catholics need to be happy, joyful folks so that everyone realizes what a great treasure they have in the Tridentine Mass. He criticizes traditionalist Catholics of an extreme sort, explaining what it was like when he started to attend the Latin Mass: …young advocates of traditional liturgy like me found ourselves heading to worship God every Sunday in the company of individuals who, as... Read more

The crisis began when I realized that teenaged boys were looking at hard core pornography on their cell phones. It continued when I read that most Christian young people don’t get the argument against same sex marriage. The crisis got worse when I realized that a majority of American Catholics don’t actually believe the basics of the faith, shrug their shoulders at the church’s moral teaching and live lives indistinguishable from their secular neighbors. It got worse when I saw... Read more

My Sunday homilies from Our Lady of the Rosary Church are now available as podcasts online for you to download listen and share. Go here for Sunday’s homily for the Feast of the Epiphany which explains who the wise men were historically and reminds us of the gifts they (and we) bring to the Christ child. Read more

Here is my latest article for Aleteia which encourages us to get spiritually fit in the new year. After the holiday feasting I’m ready to sign up at the gym. Crammed with Christmas cake and candy, and stuffed like the turkey, I am, like my waistband, overflowing with good intentions and new year resolve. I’d join the gym, except that I’m embarrassed to stand in line with the rest of the flagging and flabby holiday crowd for the torture of... Read more

My latest blog post for National Catholic Register looks at the pains that are necessary for real and lasting change to take place. Many of us are trapped in a cycle of lust and shame. We’re trapped in a downward spiral of a dead end job, a loveless marriage or an inner dynamic of rage, bitterness, anger and blame. It doesn’t have to be that way. It really doesn’t have to be that way if we profess to be disciples of Jesus... Read more

My article this week at The Imaginative Conservative website explicates the hidden meaning of the Indiana Jones films…. ….or does it? Is it possible that the popular Indiana Jones trilogy is a cleverly structured, well thought-out, theologically astute analogy of the Christian spiritual quest? I do not suggest that it is an allegory, and I realize it is always possible to read too much into popular film and fiction, but might there be more meaning there than meets the eye?... Read more

My article on Mary Mother of God and New Year’s Day is here at the National Catholic Register Did you know that, for centuries, Christians celebrated the new year on March 25 — not Jan. 1? March 25 is the feast of the Annunciation, and the new year was celebrated on that day because the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary marked the beginning of mankind’s redemption. With the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb, the second Eve reversed the... Read more

I am not really what they call a party animal and have never understood the human need to celebrate a calendar date. The turn of the New Year, however, does cause me to pause. I want to give the New Year one of those squinty eyed, cheroot chomping, Clint Eastwood type silent stare downs. I want to look again at my life and cut all the crap. I want to get down to business and stop wasting time and being... Read more

I don’t often mention my wife and family on this blog because the blog is public and I have a private side. However, people do often ask what it is like being married to a priest. I think I can answer for Mrs Longenecker and my family. These are the main questions and answers: Q – How does your wife cope with the time demands of your being a priest? A – Much like any wife would do who is... Read more

One of the things that troubles me as a pastor and as a man trying to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is the hypocrisy and heresy in the Catholic Church. I should be more precise. What troubles me are the heretics and hypocrites in the Catholic Church. A heretic is someone whose Catholic belief is faulty, partial, incomplete or mixed up with falsity, lies and corruption. A heretic’s Catholic belief is polluted by modernism, twisted by false logic, cluttered... Read more