Catholic Culture

Prudence, Prelates, and Politics

“If I attacked the Pope, I’d be on the front page of the New York Times Tomorrow” –Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, in Gary, Indiana, 1973 When does a prudential perversion become a calumny? Last week the Rubble reported how Bishop Steven Blaire of Stockton, chairman of a USCCB committee, has over the course of the…

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The “Catholic Vote” and Other Myths

Charles Molineaux, longtime friend of the Forum, analyzes the “Catholic vote,” the rise of secularism, and the lingering scourge of clericalism in an important article for Crisis Magazine. Excerpts: “Since the presumed high water mark of the Kennedy election,” Molineaux writes, “the seeming solidity of Catholic laity has been dissipated by several factors, principally three: …

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Authority and Its Discontents

WFF Board Member Christopher Manion’s latest in Crisis Magazine.  An excellent piece.

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Living A Catholic Life: What the Ratzinger Family Can Teach Us

March 1, 2012 saw the publication in English of Msgr. Georg Ratzinger’s new book My Brother, the Pope. Media outlets have widely reported this ultimate insider’s view of Pope Ratzinger and have published excerpts from the book. Of particular interest to this writer was Msgr. Ratzinger’s recollections of his childhood with his younger brother. The…

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Waking the Sleeping Giant

One of the more memorable (and apocryphal) quotes to come out of the Second World War was the quote of Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, the Japanese commander and mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the attack he was supposed to have said: “I fear all we have done is wake a sleeping giant and…

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Metaphysics and Contraception

Recently a class of high school seniors that I teach read St. Thomas Aquinas’s “Treatise on Law” from his magisterial Summa Theologiae. The students struggled through the work and great discussion was sparked over the topic of law generally and the natural law specifically. In leading the class through the discussion with several of my…

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Is America Just a Protestant Botch?

Read the latest from WFF Board Member Chris Manion. (Hat tip: Crisis Magazine)

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The Empire Builder (or, What I Saw on the Train)

Trains and Christmas go together. It has been so—at least in the United States—since the early part of the 20th century. It is not unusual to see a train encircling the Christmas tree, or to read a Christmas story or watch a Christmas movie with people traveling by train. There is a certain romance bound…

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Christmas as Real History

Ed. Note. In this 2005 article authored by WFF President Charles E. Rice, he suggests to Notre Dame students and to all of us a new approach in considering Christmas. In the face of the secularization that continues to get worse with each passing year and in the midst of an increasingly hostile federal government…

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