Catholic Church

By Carter Skeel, First Things - It’s striking to read Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage today. The Civil War novel follows Private Henry Fleming, a deserter who returns to the army to atone for his cowardice. Most notably, he takes up his regiment’s flag and charges, unarmed, toward enemy fire, with the goal of capturing their flag. On the one hand, the idea of giving the last full measure of devotion for a standard seems a bit strange today. On the other, flags have undoubtedly retained the symbolism of yesteryear.

By Joseph Pronechen, EWTN News - “So our job as Catholic fathers,” concluded Donovan, “is to raise our children with that hope of the people of God. For all of us Catholic men, St. Joseph is a man of significance and a role model in many ways and somebody who we can continue to rely on through prayer and intercession and his example given to us in the Scriptures.”

By Lauretta Brown, Catholic News Agency - The U.S. bishops voted Friday to move forward with a significant revision to their document offering guidance to Catholic health care institutions on the issue of transgender surgeries and hormone treatments... “Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures.” ....

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture - It’s happening again this year. It happens every year... At the little chapel where Leila and I go every weekday morning, it’s more and more difficult to find an empty pew at the early Mass. If you’re thinking of joining us, don’t worry; there’s still plenty of room. But you might have to ask someone to scoot over and share a pew. A few years ago, would rarely have been necessary.