It is deeply troubling to consider the possibility that prelates holding the office of diocesan bishop in the Catholic Church may be separated or not in full communion because of heresy.
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Benedict was simply the most intelligent person I’ve ever met—not only in his understanding but also in his articulation, and clearly a candidate to one day be a Doctor of the Church.
The compassion that Judge Barrett has shown me flows from the same wellspring of faith for which she is now so excoriated.
The Ratzinger I knew was arguably the most learned man in the world. When asked a question, he would answer in complete paragraphs—in his third or fourth language.
Christian Armenia finds itself fighting for its existence, more or less on its own, against long odds.
When several senators descended into insinuations about Barrett’s Catholic commitments and the threat they allegedly posed to her judging, her calm and her courage impressed and inspired many.
The Vatican should not make concessions to totalitarian regimes.
The Church should remind the nation that it was Christians who initiated and organized the abolition movement and successfully terminated the transatlantic slave trade. |
“One of the effects of lockdowns was the massive transfer of wealth upward from the working class to mostly big tech elites.”
Watch the full interview: youtu.be/uSk90Uz4ao0
“I am ashamed to admit it,” Cardinal Sarah writes, “but the Evangelical Protestants are sometimes more faithful to Christ than we are.”
Unless religious leaders reopen the churches, they will appear to value earthly above eternal life.
Sorry, but President Obama is wrong: all the Crusades met the criteria of just war. firstthings.com/article/2009/0
Not only can Cuomo be excommunicated, he should be.
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Nick Fuentes‘ new associate Kanye West has become a living reductio ad absurdum of the free speech near-absolutism of someone like Elon Musk. |
“You have to ask, is that what we see so many prominent evangelicals doing today? Are they preaching against the prevalent sins?” |
Watch the full essay: bit.ly/3YEDtuT
The Armenian Christians in Nagorno-Karabakh are sustained by faith amidst the crisis caused by the Azeri blockade, which is steadily worsening every day. |
“The Camp of the Saints” illustrates the implications of the anti-colonialist rhetoric that is lauded throughout Europe.
Our universities are increasingly turning against the culture that created them, to the detriment of students.
Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong has accused the Holy See of accepting terms that will “kill our Church.”
The Longhouse refers to the remarkable overcorrection of the last two generations toward social norms centering feminine needs and feminine methods for controlling, directing, and modeling behavior. |
Archbishop Emeritus Charles Chaput writes that Joe Biden “is not in full communion with the Catholic Church.”
Never have two people with such open hostility to Catholicism been so close to the two highest offices in American politics.
In his 1796 Farewell Address, George Washington reminded his countrymen that “of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”
ChatGPT and its pals are on course to put many of the information economy’s best and brightest out of business. Maybe now we will see investment flow toward things that engage us spiritually.
A message from Editor R. R. Reno on last week’s cancellation attempts against First Things:
In 2015, Kamala Harris used her power as California attorney general to put six Catholic hospitals out of business.
Notre Dame further erodes its Catholic identity by naming Mayor Pete a faculty fellow.
The great writer and moralist George Orwell began his literary career as a disciple of G. K. Chesterton.
Watch now: “Identity Politics: Guilt and the Scapegoat” - Dr. Joshua Mitchell
Joshua Harris might be qualified to do the evangelical church one last favor: expose the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of Big Evangelicalism.
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Transgenderism is turning drag inside-out, argues .
Without a male body performing femininity, drag’s dangerous negation of masculinity vanishes. But the negation of femaleness remains.
On this day in 1937, Pope Pius XI published the anti-Nazi encyclical “Mit brennender Sorge.” From the archives: The encyclical—a ferociously undiplomatic rebuke—so stunned Hitler that for three days he cancelled all appointments.
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A rising number of students today are drawn to schools that emphasize tradition and faith.
Bishops must not tacitly tolerate clerics in their dioceses who openly support gay culture and its message of “Pride.”
The “Dobbs” decision is the end of the beginning—and now the work begins anew.
There is a demonic side to the sentimentalism of saving lives at any cost.
It is now clear, if it was not before, that Catholics cannot expect just and fair treatment at the hands of our liberal elite.
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Passages to better places must be found. Places where the true, the good, and the beautiful may be chased with abandon, where the human spirit has not been hobbled. |
A life without human touch, a life in which we never venture, a life without risk is no life at all, but a living death.
On this day in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazis. From the archives: Bonhoeffer’s last act before his death at Flossenbürg was to lead his fellow prisoners in a service of worship.
The Francis pontificate is turning Catholicism into a chaplaincy for the elite interests in the emerging global world order. From the print edition:
Happy Independence Day! Whitman wrote that the United States are the “greatest poem.”
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LGBTQ-affirming churches are simply doing what the pro-slavery churches of the nineteenth century did: giving specious blessing to the values of the world in which they find themselves.
Protesting quarantine because it disrupts one’s lifestyle choices can be a sign of displaced individualism and bourgeois entitlement.
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Drag costume was always meant not to accentuate the natural form but to escape it. Now the body itself has become another costume. The surgeon takes her place alongside the fashion designer & the makeup artist.
If it is serious about ending the sex scandals, the Church needs to admit it has a homosexual priest problem.
Cardinal Sarah is attacked precisely because he is seen as having the makings of a pope.
Benedict XVI writes in praise of Cardinal Sarah, a teacher who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord.
The old Mass, rooted deep in the first Christian millennium, is as a matter of principle beyond the pope’s authority to prohibit.
The Church has always taught, clearly and consistently, that the death penalty is in principle consistent with both natural law and the Gospel.
Catholicism is dying in the German-speaking world because it hasn’t been proclaimed with joy, confidence, and zeal.
When Chesterton says the modern world has reverted to paganism, he means the modern person is, like the pagan, no longer able to enjoy anything. From the archives:
Young people: Do you want to make a difference? Then get married and stay married, have children, and sacrifice your all for the healthy upbringing of your kids.
Whatever your views, don't treat the White House like a bumper sticker.
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Prohibiting the killing of the unborn is a matter of simple justice to the most vulnerable among us. From the print edition:
Tim Keller was the right man for the right moment. That moment has passed.
By his actions during the course of his public life, Mr. Biden has demonstrated that he is not in full communion with the Catholic Church.
As a humble Christian, Queen Elizabeth II took her earthly vocation seriously, placing the needs of the office and of the people she ruled before her own.
Without vigorous philosophy, theology and the very life of the Church risk slipping into emotivism.
Putting an end to sex trafficking requires shutting down commercial sexual exploitation in all its forms.
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Conservatives should approach the culture war with realism.
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President Biden fails to identify the only common object of love that Saint Augustine thought mattered for a true commonwealth: God.
Amy Coney Barrett would be not just an excellent, but a great, Justice.
We condemn this radical and extremist law in the strongest possible terms.
Classical education is on the rise! Mark Bauerlein and Jason Baxter discuss:
“Traditionis Custodes was theologically incoherent, pastorally divisive, unnecessary, cruel.”
If one cannot with any confidence identify the biological mechanisms underlying same-sex attraction, how can one rule out socialization and choice as playing causal roles? |
Twin children of the Enlightenment, communism and liberalism have the same inner logic, the same intellectual structure, and the same dynamics over time. From the archives:
Disdain for vigorous religious convictions, especially the Catholic kind, is a virus that’s going around.
The questions raised by Viganò cannot be un-asked. They can only be answered or ignored.
John Waters writes an obituary for his country: “The Irish of today are more likely to be among the looters and book-burners, the barbarians who value nothing but what is expedient.”
Classical schools are thriving because parents aren’t interested in enrolling their children in grand social experiments. |
Harris is perfectly willing to impose unconstitutional religious tests to nominees to the federal bench.
The church “called to be ever more synodal” at Synod-2019 is a Bergoglian church. And this church is not the Catholic Church. It is a false church.
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We call upon Your Eminences to advise His Holiness that it is his duty to put an end to this scandal.
Colonel Beltrame was convinced that the Catholic faith that he rediscovered, the Christian wonders of French history that he loved, are the best shield against the murderous convictions that kill, and wish to kill again.
The reform of the priesthood is essential for the evangelizing mission of the Church.
The Revoice project has taken on board all the trappings of sexual identitarianism, from “preferred pronouns” to queer theory to the splintering of attendees into “affinity groups” based on their particular orientation. |
Tomorrow is the 45th annual March for Life. From the archives, here is Fr. Richard John Neuhaus in what has been called the greatest pro-life speech ever given:
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“Women have succeeded in becoming the men they hated."
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I ended by asking her the question I asked everyone I photographed: How do you want to be described?
She replied without a pause, “As who I am. A prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of God.”
Darel E. Paul joins editor R. R. Reno to talk about Drag Queens, the topic of his recent piece for the February 2023 issue. |
From the archives: The family exists to draw us into the love of God.
I am personally opposed to killing abortionists. However, inasmuch as my personal opposition is rooted in a sectarian (Catholic) religious belief in the sanctity of human life, I am unwilling to impose it on others who may take a different view.
We don’t create truth; we find it, and we have no power to change it to our tastes.
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Leo XIII’s “Rerum Novarum” was published on this day in 1891. From the archives: “Rerum Novarum” holds that a withering of the three “necessary” societies—domestic, political, and ecclesial—leads to social calamity.
Some Catholics have rightly raised concerns about Harris’s hostility toward Catholicism.
Leaked emails reveal Clinton’s entourage are actively strategizing how to shape Catholicism not to be Catholic.
What makes Slate's recent article on Mormonism so problematic? ftmag.co/1QMoe9H
In the spirit of Christian goodwill, let’s stop the ad hominem attacks on Fr. James Martin.
Abortion is an act rife with the potential for eugenic manipulation.
Do you like writing and reading essays? Do you like talking about politics, literature, and theology? Then the First Things Junior Fellowship might be for you! Apply below:
ftmag.co/3i8Btek
My Catholic faith sustained me, especially the understanding that my suffering need not be pointless but could be united with Christ Our Lord’s.
The Thomistic Institute is launching a new program: Aquinas 101, a series of free video courses that will address urgent philosophical and theological questions.
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Despite misinformation from pro-choicers, there is significant momentum on the pro-life side right now.
Christian leaders should follow the example of Pope Francis, who reversed a decision to close the churches of Rome.
The Great Reset is not about social justice, but about expanding the power of capital via the pseudo-religious impetus of progressive aims.
Loving Christians should be able to criticize Fr. James Martin’s ideas without engaging in ad hominem attacks.