The growing secular totalitarianism

Fr. James Martin’s weak and wobbly bridge | Janet E. Smith | Yes, a bridge must be built between the Catholic Church and those struggling with same-sex and trans-gender issues. But it cannot be built of tissue paper of “suggestions” based on rhetorical questions and sophistry.

Move over, Dan Brown; here come Spadaro and Figueroa! | Carl E. Olson | Spadaro and Figueroa attack the “integralist” church, even though it hardly exists in any influential form in the U.S., while apparently embracing the “liberationalist” church approach.

On that strange, disturbing, and anti-American “Civiltà Cattolica” article | Dr. Samuel Gregg | Fr. Spadaro and Rev. Figueroa make numerous assertions about specific political and religious trends in the United States: claims which are, at best, tenuous and certainly badly informed.

Sacred Liturgy Conference in southern Oregon highlights the beauty, truth of Church’s worship | Paul Senz | Speakers and celebrants included Cardinal Burke, Archbishop Sample, Archbishop Cordileone, and Bishop Vasa.

The Church, Society, and Sex | Fr. Peter M.J. Stravinskas | Fifty years into the sexual revolution, are we any happier, more fulfilled and better off than we were before?

Former Anglican bishop finds a home in the Catholic Church | Jim Graves | The leader of the UK ordinariate discusses ecumenism, priestly celibacy, and future prospects for former Anglicans joining the Church.

The Centrality of Love to the Teaching of Humanae Vitae | Dr. Maria Fedoryka | A philosopher’s meditation on the centrality of love in this new vision reflected in recent Church instruction on human generation.

Saturday night “Fever” with the Sisters of Life | K. V. Turley | This young and thriving order of religious women made their presence felt during a recent Eucharistic service in London’s Soho Square.

Why the Death Penalty is Still Necessary | Joseph M. Bessette and Edward Feser | Given the Church’s longstanding and irreformable teaching that death may in principle be a legitimate punishment for grievous crimes, the key issue for Catholics is an empirical and practical question.

Cardinal Ernest Simoni, the “Living Martyr” of Albania | Fr. Seán Connolly | His story of persecution moved Pope Francis to tears, and inspired the Pontiff to raise this simple priest to the College of Cardinals.

Intelligent Design: On the Poetry of Catherine Chandler | James Matthew Wilson | Chandler’s work exemplifies a Catholic literature at once devout without being of merely devotional interest and profound in its concern for the created order of things without lapsing into the existential anguish.

Further thoughts on Luther, the Reformation—and G. K. Chesterton | Dale Ahlquist | Martin Luther had the opportunity to become one of the greatest saints in the history of the Church. But he did not believe he was reforming a Church simply because it needed some house cleaning.

Re-Building a Bridge: The connection between contraception and the “LGBT community” | Dn. Jim Russell | We’ve arrived at the end of the road—and we stare into a massive, rippled fun-house mirror that shows us in its own twisted reflection the extent of the monumental destruction our journey really caused.

Eamon Duffy’s “Reformation Divided” revises assumptions, offers deep historical insights | Dr. Michael B. Kelly | Among the very significant contributions in Reformation Divided are the three chapters devoted to Thomas More, who has suffered from much hagiographical treatment, both good and ill.

The growing secular totalitarianism—and our Catholic response | Alan L. Anderson | It will take great spiritual strength, utilizing the grace of the sacraments and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, much prayer, and much fasting, to bear holy witness to the timeless Truth of the Magisterium.

Salt and Light, or Confusion and Obscuration? | Dn. Jim Russell | Fr. Thomas Rosica’s recent commentary on Fr. James Martin’s book seems to imply that the Church’s doctrine that the homosexual inclination is “objectively disordered” actually misses the mark and doesn’t reflect reality.

Europe is dying—but don’t be alarmed | William Kilpatrick | Many in the West remain complacent about Islam’s rising tide because they rely on the assurances of people who have been consistently wrong about Islam and immigration.