Entries by The Catholic Thing

BOOK REVIEW: Miner’s “The Compleat Gentleman”

Taynia-Renee LaFramboise reviews a new edition of the book by TCT’s senior editor. A book for men it is, but men and women rise and fall together. We are verbose creatures. Humanity’s gift of language includes our gift of creating languages. But despite a surfeit of vocabulary, our terms often fail to adequately describe what we mean. Definitions slip. […]

Knots: “Roe v. Wade,” the Movie

 Brad Miner reviews the new film about the case that legalized abortion and concludes you’d be better off watching “Gosnell” or “Unplanned”. In a 1989 TV movie, Roe vs. Wade, Holly Hunter played “Ellen Russell” and Amy Madigan was Sarah Weddington, the plaintiff’s attorney who argued the infamous 1973 abortion case before SCOTUS. “Ellen Russell” stood […]

Towards a New, and Quite Different, Tocqueville

Joseph R. Wood: We need shepherds to lead us from godless illusions about equality to the lost truths of dogma. In the early 19th century, Alexis de Tocqueville traveled the United States while the country was still spiritually and philosophically close to the founding, but changing and expanding rapidly. The Frenchman compiled his observations in Democracy […]

Once Upon a Time, in America

Anthony Esolen: Sin makes the sinner a cripple. The principles of sin do more: they cripple a whole people. They cramp the spirit. Pictures come to mind when I think of the Lonely Revolution – that deterioration of the principles governing sexual behavior in the ruins of the Christian West. One is of my father and my mother, before they […]

Take Down the Flag

Anthony Esolen: It’s not necessary to point at individuals, but that “rainbow” flag, which stands for the whole sexual revolution, must go. The Vatican recently declined to permit Catholic clergy to bless same-sex unions, averting an immediate and world-wide schism. No one should be surprised; relieved, perhaps, but not surprised. The Vatican has declined to overturn […]

Christ was Cancelled First

Elizabeth A. Mitchell: The Cross clings to us and overwhelms, as it did Peter in the courtyard.  Because there is no turning back from acknowledging Christ.  In the courtyard of the High Priest, on the evening of Holy Thursday, a palpable fear will grip Peter’s heart. His Master is arrested. The powers of this world are […]

A Different Inauguration

Fr. Paul D. Scalia: “Repent” is the foundational Gospel command. It’s always timely. Sin is the construction of one’s own petty little kingdom. Saint John Henry Newman once observed that men always think of their own day and age as the worst. In every time, he said, “serious and anxious minds, alive to the honour of […]

Our First Anti-Catholic ‘Catholic’ President

Robert Royal: You can carry rosary beads and bless yourself publicly as much as you want. But please, don’t expect Catholics to be blind. In recent days, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago has described the pre-inauguration statement issued by USCCB President and Archbishop of Los Angeles José Gómez as “unprecedented” for what – in any non-partisan […]

Lockdowns: An Abortion Argument

David G. Bonagura, Jr.: COVID restrictions have exposed the privacy/liberty “right” to abort as what’s it always been: an arbitrary government edict. The irony is sickening. For decades we have heard the shrieks in defense of abortion and birth control: “Keep the government out of my uterus!” “My body, my choice!” “No woman can call herself […]

Another Sort of Reset

Robert Royal: Moral witness can succeed if enough of us, despite every threat, refuse to accept the violence and falsehood that are running wild among us. St. John Paul II used to tell a story – a true story – about a colleague of his at a Polish university where the future pope was teaching ethics. […]

It’s Not Over

Michael Pakaluk: For the integrity of future elections, we must ruthlessly follow evidence for all claims of election irregularities, and – until then – withhold judgment. My goal here is to say some words to readers who are disturbed by the election, but to do so starting from non-partisan, Catholic premises solely.  I want what I […]