News

By Thomas P. Harmon, Catholic World Report - If a man has made it through seminary to the moment of ordination these days, he has likely studied the classical virtue tradition. He has learned that virtue lies between excess and defect. And he may have seen, with growing clarity, that in our cultural moment, it is the vices of defect that prevail. We do not suffer from an excess of passion so much as a shrinking back from the good. We hesitate to speak the truth clearly, to call others to holiness, to risk being conspicuous in our fidelity. In such an age, true virtue appears radical ....

By Anthony Esolen, The Catholic Thing - Why did Jesus choose only men as his apostles? Three replies are typically given.  The first two are absurd, and the third is insufficient. As the Cardinals vote for the next successor to St. Peter, it’s a good time to look more deeply into this question... First, it is said he was bowing to the culture around him.  The Jews would not have looked kindly on a man traveling with women among his intimate entourage.  As if Jesus was ever afraid of rejection!  And what could they have done to him that they were not already going to do?  Crucify him twice?

By Sheryl Collmer, Crisis Magazine - It is so much easier to destroy than to build. It takes barely a second and hardly any effort to tear something down; it requires no imagination, dedication, or moral perseverance... Pope Francis destroyed. I don’t speak to his intention, only his actions... The destruction is not irrevocable, but there are a lot of gaping bomb craters and tumbled walls in the structure that took thousands of years to build. And it will require people with intelligence, virtue, and especially unshakable faith to rebuild what we have just witnessed being so cruelly and systematically destroyed. ...