Understanding the subtext of LGBTQ “welcome”

Bishop Paprocki responds to controversy, criticisms over decree on same-sex “marriage” | Jim Graves | Interview with the Bishop of Springfield, Illinois about his decree regarding same-sex “marriage” and “related pastoral issues”.

Authority, anthropology, and the bourgeois morality of Fr. James Martin | Carl E. Olson | Catholics need to reject bourgeois values, pursue Christian virtues, and reject ambiguity and falsehood.

Fr. James Martin, “bridges”, and the triumph of the therapeutic mentality | Dr. Eduardo Echeverria | A review of Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity.

Understanding the subtext of LGBTQ “welcome” | Deacon Jim Russell | The welcome required by people who claim false sexual identities for themselves is not as much welcome as it is a kind of blinking contest, a game of “chicken.”

Why the label “gay” impoverishes and harms our view of the human person | Jim Graves | An interview with Daniel Mattson, author of Why I Don’t Call Myself Gay.

Understanding Bishop Paprocki’s norms on ‘same-sex marriage’ | Edward N. Peters | While I can’t quite say that Paprocki “wrote the book” on the defense of rights in the Church, he certainly wrote a book on it.

From Street to Sanctuary: The LGBT Take On the Church | Fr. Regis Scanlon, OFMCap | The "LGBT" movement, now largely accepted into secular society, is setting its sights on the Catholic Church.

Conflicts, campuses, and the return to Catholic commitments | Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille | Theology (and its “handmaid” philosophy), must return from the peripheries to become once more the “queen of the sciences” in Catholic universities.

The Creative Catholic: John C. Wright | K.V. Turley | “The writer’s vocation," says the award-winning science fiction author, "is to write for some one person--a person he will never meet in this life--his favorite book.”

Biography of Michael O’Brien details a creative life full of joys and sorrows | Richard Bastien | On The Edge of Infinity is an intimate portrait of the artist, writer, and family man.

Sacraments in Brideshead Revisited | Sister Albert Marie Surmanski, O.P. | Although not a theological treatise, Evelyn Waugh's famous novel contains an arresting presentation of the power of the sacraments.

Fiction and murder most foul: A morbid topic for Catholics? | John Herreid | Two Catholic novelists discuss reading and writing detective fiction.

The Benedict Compulsion | James Kalb | The ”Benedict Option” now receiving so much attention is rather different from anything pursued by Benedict of Nursia. Even so, there’s a family resemblance.

An evening with a monk of Norcia and the author of The Benedict Option | Thomas S. Hibbs | Fr. Benedict described the life of the monk as one that sets aside all secondary matters in order to focus on our ultimate end, “our telos, union with God.”

Manchester, London, and the goals of Islam | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | In its own terms, Islam has a noble mission; namely, to submit the world to Allah. Yet, nothing can be found in philosophy, revelation, or natural religion that can justify it.

Beauty, goodness, and why the intellectual life is intrinsically conservative | Carl E. Olson | An interview with Dr. James Matthew Wilson, author of The Vision of the Soul.

The 400-year-old Marian apparition that is particularly relevant today | Jim Graves | The little-known apparition of Our Lady of Good Success includes some dire prophecies--but its fundamental message is one of hope, says apologist Matthew Arnold.

Fr. Paul Scalia’s new book addresses sentimentality, relativism, and need for conversion | Paul Senz | An interview with the author of That Nothing May Be Lost, a book that consists of incisive reflections on the tenets of the Catholic Faith.

Four cardinals to Pope Francis: “Faced with this grave situation...” | Carl E. Olson | “...[we] ask humbly and respectfully for an Audience.” But they likely aren’t going to receive an audience or an answer.

The Bible, the Reformation, and G.K. Chesterton | Dale Ahlquist | “I suppose it will take centuries to unwind the coil of confusion and stupidity, which began when the Reformers quite irrationally separated the Bible from the Church.”