This question came up when a parishioner approached me to bless a bottle of water for her. Requests like this would seem to be pious, innocent, and not polemical. Hence, in most cases, bottled water would just be blessed without questions asked.
Guest Columnists
The Truth About Ukraine Strife
For months now, the world press has described Russian troop deployments along Ukraine’s borders as spearheads of a possible invasion. The truth, however, is that Russia invaded Ukraine seven years ago, when it annexed Crimea and Russian “little green men” ignited a war in eastern Ukraine that has taken over 14,000 lives and displaced over a million people.
Liquid Catholicism & the German Synodal Path
Twenty years ago, during the Long Lent of 2002, I began using the term “Catholic Lite” to describe a project that detached the Church from its foundations in Scripture and Tradition.
Undercutting Vatican II to Defend Vatican II?
Archbishop Arthur Roach, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, recently sent the world’s bishops instructions regulating local usage of the Traditional Latin Mass.
Two Families and the Communion of Saints
Despite being immersed for over 30 years in the study of modern Polish history, I must confess that I’d never heard of the heroic Ulma family until recently. I’ll get to the circumstances of my being introduced to these 20th-century martyrs in a moment. But first, consider their story.
Russia, Ukraine, And Moral Reckoning
There have been vast improvements in the techniques and technology of filmmaking since 1961, when Stanley Kramer made “Judgment at Nuremberg”.
Can Marriage Vows Be Renewed?
Three years after their wedding, a couple was navigating through rough waters in their marriage. Several small breakups happened here and there. The last separation was a long three months. Then, they finally decided to start all over again as husband and wife. They wanted to renew their wedding vows and so they approached the same priest who had solemnized their marriage.
Marching Toward A Different Future
The annual March for Life in Washington began in 1974 — and it’s hard to think of a more admirable or consistent public witness to the dignity of the human person being given for so many years by so many people of all races, religions, and social classes.
Who Invented The Individual?
A common misconception holds that early “modernity” invented the “individual”: the idea that everyone is a someone with a unique identity independent of family, tribe, racial group, or nation.
The Sacred Earthiness Of Christmas
Christianity begins in a real place, at a specific point in time in which real men and women met an itinerant rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth — and after what they had thought to be the utter catastrophe of his degrading and violent death, met him anew as the Risen Lord Jesus.