Carl E. Olson is editor of Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight. He is the author of Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? Will Catholics Be “Left Behind”?, coeditor/contributor to Called To Be the Children of God, co-author of The Da Vinci Hoax (Ignatius), and author of the “Catholicism” and “Priest Prophet King” Study Guides for Bishop Robert Barron/Word on Fire. His new book Praying the Our Father in Lent (2021), is published by the Catholic Truth Society. He is also a contributor to “Our Sunday Visitor” newspaper, “The Catholic Answer” magazine, “The Imaginative Conservative”, “The Catholic Herald”, “National Catholic Register”, “Chronicles”, and other publications. Bishop Robert …
Category: Current Issues
A Tale of Two Priests: A Word to Our Fathers
James R. A. Merrick, Ph.D. is the Director of Emmaus Academic and the Director of Clergy Support at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He is also a Lecturer in the Theology Department at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Before entering the Catholic Church with his wife and their six children, he was an Anglican minister in the US and UK for over a decade. He writes for the National Catholic Register, Angelus News, Ascension Press, and Catholic East Texas magazine. It was supposed to be a joyous weekend. It was my daughter’s First Holy Communion. We were anticipating a nice party, celebrating …
Saving the Unborn Is the Long Game
By Regis Nicoll Regis Nicoll is a retired nuclear engineer and a fellow of the Colson Center who writes commentary on faith and culture. He is the author of Why There Is a God: And Why It Matters. For every issue, it seems, there is always good news and bad news. For the pro-life movement, the good news is that the U.S. abortion rate has been falling for over a decade and, now, is at its lowest level since 1974. The bad news is that, even at the reduced rate, a child is aborted once every 50 seconds and, despite a new …
Wokeism’s Threat to National Security
By William Kilpatrick William Kilpatrick taught for many years at Boston College. He is the author of several books about cultural and religious issues, including Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong; and Christianity, Islam, and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West, and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Jihad. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Catholic World Report, National Catholic Register, Aleteia, Saint Austin Review, Investor’s Business Daily, and First Things. His work is supported in part by the Shillman Foundation. For more on his work and writings, visit his website, turningpointproject.com It’s difficult to keep track or make sense of the daily barrage of news, …
St. Joan of Arc: Girl Power or Godly Power?
By Sean Fitzpatrick Sean Fitzpatrick is a senior contributor to Crisis and serves on the faculty of Gregory the Great Academy, a Catholic boarding school for boys in Pennsylvania. The Dauphin had heard of this girl from Domrémy who wished to see him. Rumor had it she won over the commandant of Vaucouleurs by predicting the outcome of the Battle of Rouvray. How intriguing. The rough soldiers who were bringing her apparently called her la Pucelle, “the Maid.” How amusing. The frivolous Dauphin, Charles VII, thought it a fine jest and hid giggling among his courtiers when she arrived. The girl entered, striking and sturdy in …
When Your Feelings Are Wrong
By Anthony Esolen Anthony Esolen, a contributing editor at Crisis, is a professor and writer-in-residence at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts. He is the author, most recently, of Sex and the Unreal City (Ignatius Press, 2020). “If I have to choose between my feelings or experiences and the Bible,” I heard someone say recently, “it’s impossible for me to choose the Bible.” Well, people lie about their feelings all the time, to others and even to themselves. Very often, “He offended me” means “I was looking for a way to hurt him, and he handed me this delightful opportunity.” But let’s grant that the …
In Persona Pelosi
By Paul Kengor Paul Kengor is Professor of Political Science at Grove City College, executive director of the Center for Vision and Values. He is the author, most recently, of The Devil and Karl Marx (TAN Books, 2020). “I think I can use my own judgment on that.” That was the assessment of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a longtime “pro-choice” Catholic when asked her reaction to U.S. bishops and the Vatican considering the question of whether abortion-advocating Catholic politicians should be denied the Eucharist. The reporter acknowledged the Church’s position that the priest or bishop has the authority to decide whether …
Young American Catholics and the Normalization of Lesbian and Gay Sexuality
By David Ayers, Ph.D. David Ayers is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Economics and Sociology at Grove City College, where he has also served previously as Dean of the Alva J. Calderwood School of Arts and Letters, and as Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. He is author of two textbooks with Cengage, and most recently of Christian Marriage: A Comprehensive Introduction (Lexham, 2019). His book Beyond the Revolution: Sex and the Single Evangelical will be released later this year. He resides in Grove City, Pennsylvania, has been married to Kathy since 1982, has six children, three sons-in-law, and six grandchildren. …
The Hidden Threat to Catholicism
By Eric Sammons Eric Sammons is the editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine. His upcoming book Deadly Indifference (May 2021) examines the rise of religious indifference and how it has led the Church to lose her missionary zeal. A serious, even existential, threat to Catholicism looms on the horizon, and it’s hidden all around us. It could very well decimate the ranks of the Church, and perhaps is already doing so. It is insidiously dangerous because it upends the very foundations of Catholicism. I’m not talking about the abuse crisis, or the lack of episcopal courage, or rampant heresy, although all those threats are dire indeed. …
Ignoble Simplism
By Anthony Esolen Anthony Esolen, a contributing editor at Crisis, is a professor and writer-in-residence at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts. He is the author, most recently, of Sex and the Unreal City (Ignatius Press, 2020). According to the instruction Inter Oecumenici (1964), certain rites performed during the Mass were to be revised, that the services might “manifest a noble simplicity more attuned to the spirit of the times.” The noble simplicity apparently demanded that the so-called Last Gospel, the soaring prologue to the Gospel of John, was no longer to be said at the end of Mass, thus making it so that the only …