The polarization of American politics is reflected in a like polarization of politics around the world, because capitalism is a world system, and that system is in a protracted crisis that has been mounting for decades, and is reaching a kind of dangerous endgame that combines war, mass displacement, famine, financial ripoff schemes, and ecological collapse. Read more
There is no immigration crisis on the southern border. That's a lie. There is, however, a crisis in the Catholic Church. Read more
The forcible separation of children from their parents has a long history in the United States, a history nearly always justified on biblical grounds. Some have said or inferred that this current policy "isn't who we are." They're wrong. It is is exactly who we are. Read more
We ... view our work first as a religious obligation, but also as a practical expression of good citizenship in a free republic. We are animated by three loves: love of God, love of community, and love of neighbor, and it seems to me that in one form or another these three loves are what drives all good citizenship. Read more
We are mostly comfortable middle class people exercising a sort of Catholic noblesse oblige, often with judgment; seldom from a deep sense of identification with those we serve. Vincent de Paul said that "the poor are our masters," but I've seen little consciousness of that spiritual reality in our work, including my own. Read more
We all know the Mass-hopper: that restless type who constantly whines that he can’t take one more of Fr. Ted’s vanilla homilies at St. X’s. Nor can he abide the horrible teen “praise” band ruining Fr. Jim’s services at St. Y’s. So that leaves Fr. Bob at St. Z’s but have you ever seen an uglier sanctuary in your life? I mean, really. I don’t wish to be That Guy and yet my own recent Mass-hopping in my area doesn’t... Read more
Can you imagine a conference and exhibition at the New York Public Library titled, "Words and The Word: Literature and the Catholic Imagination?" Or a similar event at Lincoln Center titled, "Choirs of Angels: Music and the Catholic Imagination?" Or a Guggenheim Museum installation titled, "Dappled Things: Landscape Painting and the Catholic Imagination?" Or an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art titled, "Through a Glass Darkly: Pop Art and the Catholic Imagination?" I can. In fact, I'd line up to buy tickets to attend such exhibitions and conferences, and I suspect many other Catholics would, too. Read more
Wisdom from the Babylonian Talmud (Baba Bathra 10a). Ten strong things have been created in the world: Rock is hard but iron cleaves it; Iron is hard but fire softens it; Fire is powerful but water quenches it ... Read more
The Last Christians: Stories of Persecution, Flight, and Resilience in the Middle East Author: Andreas Knapp Publisher: Plough Publishing House Date: September 1, 2017 Purchase here Andreas Knapp is the kind of Christian we should all aspire to be. A Catholic priest, Knapp abandoned a comfortable sinecure as rector of the Collegium Borromaeum, the seminary of the German Archdiocese of Freiburg, in order to join a small order inspired by Charles de Foucauld, live among the poor, and minister... Read more
My question is this: Why the hell is a Catholic priest serving as chaplain to the US House of Representatives in the first place? Read more
The Dorothy Option
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