There is no political type I find more annoying than Never Trump “conservatives.” Taken as a whole, they are smug, self-righteous, unable to comprehend the nature of political power, and unwilling to use political power to advance the interests of ordinary Americans, whom they regard with indifference or contempt. It is this last point–their unwillingness to use political power...
The best advice I can give my fellow Catholics as we move through the final weeks of Lent toward Easter is this: focus on your own spiritual preparations, on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and not the goings on in Rome. Monday’s surprising affirmation of orthodoxy in the matter of same-sex unions has produced little defense among conservative Catholics, because Francis has done everything...
Credit where credit is due. The Vatican today released a document, approved by Pope Francis, making it clear that the Church lacks the power to bless same-sex unions. The statement was issued by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, and it is reminiscent of other documents issued by the Congregation’s Prefect, Cardinal Ladaria Ferrer, S. J.: it is logical, concise, crystal clear...
Eight years ago, the Cardinal electors made a dreadful mistake. Even I, a mere lawyer in Cleveland, knew that Benedict XVI wanted Angelo Scola to succeed him. That is why he had moved Scola from Venice to Milan. Eight years later, I can see many arguments for the case that Francis has strengthened one faction in the Church against other factions in internecine squabbles that do nothing to attract...
In many ways, Hungary’s Viktor Orban has emerged as the leading Christian statesman in Europe. While many talk about helping the family, Orban’s policies have actually helped increase the number of Hungarians getting married and the number of Hungarian babies being born. And while many talk of helping persecuted Christians, Hungary has actually set up a fund to help. When Pope Francis...
Sixteen years ago today Sam Francis died. What an immense, ongoing loss. As I wrote in December 2019 in Chronicles, Francis’ essays and columns from decades ago are a better guide to what is happening than virtually anything now being written. And there is no better way to wean someone from the jumble of cliches, platitudes, irrelevancies, and non-sequiturs that comprise the corpus of...
The Washington Post is all a-flutter over the Biden Administration’s decision to end the ban on transgender troops. Yes, just think how much better we’d have fought if the landing craft at Normandy and Tarawa had been filled with men in dresses. And how much faster Patton’s Third Army would have relieved Bastogne if his tanks had been driven by the transgendered. In fact, when...
An update on my piece on the inauguration of our nation’s second Catholic President and the reaction of America’s Catholic bishops. Yesterday, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, issued a statement noting that “as pastors, the nation’s bishops are given the duty of proclaiming the Gospel in all its truth and...
I am a Catholic, from a long line of Catholics. My eight great-grandparents came from five different countries on contemporary maps, and counted six different native tongues between them, but all except one were Catholics from birth, and the lone exception become a sincere and committed Catholic. Their actions show that they felt far more attachment to their Catholic faith than to the lands they...
David French, Rod Dreher, and other Never Trump Christians have been quite vocal of late bemoaning Donald Trump and those Christians tacky enough to have voted for him and insensitive enough not to have repented of being a “Trumpist.” Being an unapologetic supporter of Trump is an unforgivable sin in the eyes of both the secular left and the Never Trump right. It also precludes an...
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