A sub-category of News.
We live in a country whose citizenry have been, almost from the beginning of the Republic, carefully coached to observe all the requisite protocols. What that means, as a practical matter, is, quite simply, keeping religion and politics in separate compartments. In other words, Church and State must never be seen in the same room….
There’s good news and there’s bad news. The problem is that the good news isn’t very good, and we don’t know (yet?) how bad the bad news can be. Yes, you guessed it: I’m talking about “synodality.” The good news is that “synodality” might actually be meaningless. (That raises some questions about why, then, we…
Sir Keir Starmer, His Majesty’s current Prime Minister for Great Britain (he has others—equally all powerful—in his other realms of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, and the rest), has sponsored legislation on September 5, 2025—the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill—in the House of Commons which would remove all the remaining hereditary peers. While in…
In the first three parts of this essay, we took a look at the history of nationalism in Western nations since the French Revolution, how the Catholic Church reacted to nationalism in that time frame, and, finally, we looked at the teachings of the popes regarding nationalism since 1789. In the final installment, I want…
Last week, the popular rapper Zuby, who has amassed a significant following on social media as a self-described “epitome of toxic positivity,” posted an article titled “My Honest Advice For Gen Z Men.” He includes 12 life tips for young men from his perspective as a “successful Millennial.” The article is actually quite good and…
Above: Rochester, Pennsylvania, Fr. Angelus’s hometown. Before following in the footsteps of St. Francis, Matthew Shaughnessy, competitive by nature, excelled at both baseball and basketball. My brothers Mike and Tim were avid readers. Mike preferred novels, while Tim leaned toward nonfiction, and neither of them shied away from books that, though not written in stone……
Above: Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Liesing, Austria. On his first day in office, in addition to signing a flurry of executive orders, President Joe Biden led a virtual swearing-in ceremony for “Day One Presidential Appointees,” that is, administrative staff for the White House and various governmental agencies. A few minutes into his…
Those of us who are blessed to work on faithful Catholic college campuses were shocked and saddened to hear about the Detroit archbishop’s decision to abruptly fire three of the most prominent professors at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. The archbishop’s refusal to provide any rationale for their removal has left a void that has unfortunately…
There is a particular cruelty in offering welcome without truth. It is the cruelty of the smiling gatekeeper who opens the door to a collapsing house. For many, this is no abstraction. It is the lived story of men and women like Joseph Sciambra, who endured the hellish aftermath of ecclesiastical neglect—wounded not only by…
Being back in Southern California is always a bit of a culture shock, and never more than in the Summer. Pasadena could not be further from Europe in so many ways. But of course, it does have a charm of its own, and a plethora of local institutions that give it a unique character. The…
