Broken Homes Need Church Fathers

Broken Homes Need Church Fathers by Sarah Cain at Crisis Magazine. Almost a quarter of children in the United States live with only one parent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s the world’s highest rate. It’s heart-wrenching; for single-parent homes are connected with higher rates of substance abuse, criminality, suicide, and poverty…. There is no quick fix for the broken homes that have become too normal, but the crisis has assuredly increased the obligation of the Church. She needs to be the voice of reason and decency in this time of disorder, pointing people away from the slavery of vice and toward the true liberty and happiness of the Faith. Read

Archbishop Cordileone on the “Antidote to the Spiritual Sickness Afflicting Society…” Interview of Archbishop Cordileone by Julian Kwasniewski at Catholic World Report. It is abundantly clear that we are having trouble as a society raising boys to be good men. Many young men today are disconnected from their families and seduced by a culture that does not offer them a clear pathway to achieve a healthy masculine identity, one that is protective and productive. The result is that we are living in a fatherless society, and this is at the root of all of the social ills we are suffering in our time—gun violence, drug addiction, domestic violence, homelessness and massive incarceration, to name a few. Read

Championing Religious Freedom: ‘We Must Preserve Our Unity’ Going Beyond Political Disputes by Robert P. George at National Catholic Register. For us, at the foundation of our thinking about religious freedom is the dignity of the human person, the importance of the spiritual quest, and the value of the spiritual life. We defend the rights of conscience not, or not simply, to preserve social peace, but so that people can, consistently with their dignity and with their obligations as rational creatures, pursue the truth about spiritual matters, and lead lives of authenticity and integrity in line with their best judgments as to such matters. Read

Two Questions Emerge About Religious Freedom from Kloosterman v Metropolitan Hospital by Charles J. Russo at Catholic World Report. Valerie Kloosterman, a physician assistant with an unblemished seventeen-year record, was fired from her job in 2021 for not referring patients for gender “transitioning” drugs and procedures or to use pronouns corresponding to their gender identities rather than their biological sexes…. Valerie Kloosterman is a “‘a devout Christian,’ [who] ‘believes that one’s sex is ordained by God, that one should love and care for the body that God gave him or her, and that one should not attempt to erase or to alter his or her sex, especially through drugs or surgical means.’” Read

Public Schools and Faith-Based Chaplains: Texas’ New Combination is Testing the First Amendment by Charles J. Russo at The Conversation. In 1996, a school board in eastern Texas created a program called Clergy in Schools. Beaumont Independent School District recruited volunteer clergy to counsel K-12 students on topics such as self-esteem, peer pressure and violence. The goal, officials said, was to create volunteer opportunities, encourage conversation about civic values and morality, and enhance safe learning environments. Clergy in Schools didn’t last long. A federal trial court…. held that the program was unconstitutional because it was not neutral with regard to faith and conveyed the message that religion is preferable to a lack of religion. But now, schools across the state are debating whether to open their doors to clergy. Read

Beauty Belongs in the Public Square by Daniel Zoumaya at Crisis Magazine. Fortunately, despite the dispiriting art and architecture which have descended upon our cities in recent years, man’s fundamental desire for beauty has not been blotted out of his heart. People still desire what is beautiful, which is why they travel across the world to visit spectacular buildings and to observe great sculptures and paintings. Better yet, people are making beautiful art and architecture again, as we see on the campuses of Thomas Aquinas College, Christendom College, and Hillsdale College. Read

Satan Comes to Georgetown by Jacob Adams at First Things. When the [Satanic Temple] event was officially announced, the university president said nothing publicly and the Catholic Ministry merely issued a statement acknowledging the group’s “anti-Catholic actions and speech” and declaring it would be holding a prayer service at the same time as the event. According to the statement, “there is no more powerful response than to unite in prayer.” The Archdiocese of Washington has not spoken publicly on the matter. The university's feeble response, which was mocked by some students, confused me, because as recently as 2020, the university had no problem refusing to permit speech and actions on campus that conflicted with its core Catholic identity. Read

Throwback Thursday

Destroying Culture Through Amnesia by Sarah Cain at Crisis Magazine on October 19, 2022. Of course, the public school system is secular, and when you deny Christ, you fall into the nihilism of defining people by the immoral matrix of the current political theater. You fail to see them as sons and daughters of God, with value and dignity inherent. The curriculum therein described is thus a consequence of a faithless education. To refuse to see the good any time there are also flaws is to prepare our young to crumble in the face of adversity and to be unable to bear their own reflection. It readies them for despair and drenches them in a secular ideology that, by definition, lacks hope and meaning. Read