Why We Can’t Let “The New Homophiles” Stick

Last updated on: January 13, 2015 at 12:30 am By Guest Contributor

by Sarah Martinez When Elizabeth Scalia shared a past First Things essay on Twitter, I liked the piece a lot, but not the title: “New Homophiles: Stories Without a Who or a What”. I tweeted a complaint about her promoting the use of Austin Ruse’s insufficient identifier, “New Homophiles”, to describe sexual-minority Christian men and women striving to live according to a traditional sexual ethic. She kindly offered me the floor to suggest something better. Well, challenge accepted, Elizabeth! I... Read more

Fr. Barron: Religion’s “Smart-People Problem” a View Rooted in Ignorance

Last updated on: February 19, 2015 at 3:47 pm By Fr. Robert Barron

By Very Rev. Robert Barron Daniel Dennett, one of the “four horsemen” of contemporary atheism, proposed in 2003 that those who espouse a naturalist, atheist worldview should call themselves “the brights,” thereby distinguishing themselves rather clearly from the dim benighted masses who hold on to supernaturalist convictions. In the wake of Dennett’s suggestion, many atheists have brought forward what they take to be ample evidence that the smartest people in our society do indeed subscribe to anti-theist views. By “smartest”... Read more

Great Society to Obama: Government Effect on Family Size

Last updated on: February 19, 2015 at 3:47 pm By Russell Shaw

By Russell Shaw President Lyndon Baines Johnson had spoken the words “Great Society” before, but on January 4, 1965 he brought the pieces together as a legislative package for Congress. His State of the Union message stirred a remarkable flurry of congressional activity that in short order produced major new programs in civil rights, health care, and anti-poverty. In the half-century since then, the Great Society and its offspring have made profound changes in American society. A huge increase in... Read more

Francis’ New Cardinals Not Reaching Every Frontier

Last updated on: January 7, 2015 at 2:21 pm By Guest Contributor

by Chris Lowney Pope Francis just named the first-ever Cardinals from Cape Verde, Tonga, and Myanmar and was hailed for reaching out yet again to the world’s frontiers and peripheries. Bravo for Francis. I applaud the instinct to diversify the range of voices among the Church’s highest ranks. But Catholicism’s most exotic and challenging 21st century frontiers have nothing to do with geography. Inspired by Pope Francis’s constant encouragement to become a Church that reaches out to the peripheries, let’s... Read more

False Values Deliver Only False Heroes

Last updated on: February 19, 2015 at 3:47 pm By Russell Shaw

By Russell Shaw Let’s face it, 2014 was a rotten year for heroes and hero worship. Sure, it brought were plucky, admirable people who did praiseworthy things. But all too often their good deeds were upstaged by the misdeeds of individuals in many walks of life—entertainers, politicians, sports figures, even clergy—jostling one another in their rush to trip over their feet of clay and drag their reputations in the dust. Of course this wasn’t new. “Say it ain’t so, Joe”... Read more

Ridley Scott & Missing the Point of the Book of Exodus

Last updated on: February 19, 2015 at 3:47 pm By Fr. Robert Barron

By Very Rev. Robert Barron Ridley Scott’s new film “Exodus: Gods and Kings” features Moses, the Pharaoh, hundreds of thousands of slaves making their way across the floor of the Red Sea, all ten plagues, the burning bush, and even the angel of Yahweh in the form of a petulant eleven year old boy with a British accent. And yet, the movie is spiritually flat, as though its makers had read the Biblical story but understood precious little of its... Read more

Dear U.S. Catholic Theologians: Lives of Black Women & Girls Always Matter

Last updated on: December 23, 2014 at 12:53 pm By Guest Contributor

by Shannen Dee Williams, PhD On Monday, December 8, 2014, a small group of U.S. Catholic theologians from St. Louis University, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Dayton, and Marquette University released a statement calling for police reform and racial justice in America in the wake of the ever-expanding “Black Lives Matter” movement. Citing four racially charged police killings and referencing the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Pope Francis, the group called upon the Church to “raise... Read more

Culture War: Loud in Proportion to What Would be Silenced

Last updated on: February 19, 2015 at 3:48 pm By Russell Shaw

by Russell Shaw For months after the Supreme Court abruptly legalized abortion in its Roe v. Wade decision of January 1973, people who welcomed the result repeatedly declared that the struggle over abortion had now come to a close. The Supreme Court had spoken, the matter was settled, and prolifers could pack up and go home. Some of the people saying that probably believed it, and for others it was wishful thinking. But in still other cases a different motive... Read more

Why Write Christmas Carols in the Zombie-Era?

Last updated on: December 4, 2014 at 11:24 am By Guest Contributor

When Joseph Bottum announced the release of his newly-created Christmas music, the cranky managing editor of the Catholic channel demanded to know why he had undertaken the work. He responded with: “Grace and Gladness”– or, Why I Write Christmas Carols by Joseph Bottum I’ve been writing Christmas songs over the past few years, and maybe for much the same reason that AMC fills the airwaves with its zombie-apocalypse television show The Walking Dead; why the CW has given us Supernatural... Read more

Wanted from Pope Francis: More Company Manners

Last updated on: December 23, 2014 at 12:52 pm By Guest Contributor

by Max Lindenman While covering Pope Francis’ visit to Turkey for the Aleteia news outlet, it never occurred to me that anything about his self-presentation might be out of kilter. But, toward the very end, straining my eyes to make out the text of the speech he gave after Sunday’s Divine Liturgy, I realized: Hey, this is really hard work! This is not, normally, the case with this particular pope. Normally, the zinger of the week has been tweeted from... Read more