A sub-category of News.
I imagine very few millennials grew up as traditional Catholics. For most of us, it was a tangled process, or rather conversion, that led from the kitsch and thin Catholicism of our youth—“And if the devil doesn’t like it he can sit on a tack. Ouch!”—to that rich, distant land of Tradition. It took until…
In April 2025, Tucker Carlson invited Matt Walsh onto his podcast. The conversation covered everything from same-sex adoption and surrogacy to foreign policy isolationism. It is well worth listening to. But beyond the substance of the conversation, there was simply something powerful about a discussion between two men with such influence on the American Right—each…
As I write these words, it is June 22, 2025; in the traditional calendar, it is Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi and the feast day of Sts. Alban, John Fisher, and Thomas More. On Thursday, here in Trumau, the International Theological Institute and the local church of St. John the Baptist put on…
Ten years ago Donald Trump came down the golden escalator and fundamentally changed the American political scene…or at least, so it seemed. While everyone assumed the 2016 Presidential election would be between the two political dynasties of America—the Bush Family vs. the Clinton Family—Trump upended all that. One of his primary weapons was to discredit…
Among the six articles a week my wife Debra and I publish at Word and Song (our attempt to bring, without any politics at all, good and true and beautiful things back into the public square), is our Hymn of the Week, every Tuesday. That sends me to one or another of the many hymnals…
Many years ago, I decided to attend daily Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Each morning on my way to Mass, I would drive past a house that flew the flag representing pride in all the different sexual identities that fell under the LGBTQ (this was…
The fiery tongues of the Holy Ghost have fallen. The ancient Ember Days are behind us. We lingered in the mystery during the octave for the sake of the transformation of our lives in the Holy Spirit. The 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, feels like the opening of a new liturgical season, Tempus per annum… Time…
Above: Catholic vice president JD Vance. Photo credit. As all the world knows, on May 18, 2025, Pope Leo XIV was inaugurated. Although not nearly as impressive or expressive as the coronations of once – and we pray – future popes, it was certainly not unimpressive in its way. As foreign leaders and representatives of…
How to account for the Good News of Jesus Christ? The short answer is the Holy Ghost, who, in the words of the poet Hopkins, “with warm breast and with ah! bright wings,” hovers about a broken world, and in whose fiery descent deigns to give birth to men and women annealed in Christ through…
June used to be associated with weddings. Marriage is suffering its share of problems. People find all sorts of ersatz substitutes for it; and, if they marry at all, it’s usually later than it’s ever been. For Catholics, marriage is a sacrament. That means it is more than a civil ceremony, more than “a license…
