CNA Columns
Gatsby Madness and the Millennials: Another Lost Generation?
I was sure I would hate it. Almost one hundred percent sure. But I went and saw “The Great Gatsby”... Read more
The 'therapeutic cloning' of human embryos
The embryos killed are the first class of victims; the second class of victims will be the rest of us.... Read more
The American Catholic Church and Education: Part Four
Catholic education begins with Christ the Teacher. As early as the third-century, he is portrayed in Alexandrian frescoes and wall... Read more
What would your parish look like if...?
Despite the way my office usually looks, I’m something of a perfectionist. It’s not that I always see the glass... Read more
President Obama put politics ahead of people with Gosnell case
Fort Hood. Tucson. Aurora. Newtown. Boston.These are just a few of the tragedies that have taken place over the past... Read more
The heroes of Sundance
In January the Sundance Film festival “canonized” the work of late term abortionists in the United States, and gushed unbounded... Read more
May is Mary’s month
This has been a custom in the Church dating back many centuries. And it is beautiful to associate Mary with... Read more
Was Jesus a hipster?
In 2008 everyone was talking about Barack Obama’s history as a community organizer. Those on the political right wrongly assumed... Read more
Alma Redemptoris Mater
Gustave Reese, the pre-eminent Medieval and Renaissance musicologist of his day (d 1977), was also famous for striking fear in... Read more
The adventure of classical morality
One of the most significant fault lines in Western culture opened up in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when what... Read more
The President needs a history lesson
In the spring of 1983, President Ronald Reagan did something highly unusual for a sitting president. He wrote and published... Read more
How the Church built western sacred music: part three
The music of Western civilization was born in the Catholic Church. Adapted from mid-eastern chants, it began with Pope St.... Read more
Abortion and contraception consequences on display in Gosnell’s “house of horrors”
Our news outlets are not known for their squeamish attitude toward violence. On the contrary, reporters are often criticized for... Read more
The Gosnell story and its lessons
Some stories, no matter how unsettling, just can't be ignored – even when some people are determined to look away.The... Read more
The Boston bombings and their aftermath
Violence and grief in the Boston area have rightly dominated our news media for the past week. The latest terrorist... Read more
Unemployment and St. Joseph the Worker
In 1955, Pope Pius XII designated May 1st as the feast of St. Joseph the Worker to counter two other... Read more
The divine creation and gifts of marriage
Marriage, most fundamentally, is gift. Or, perhaps more clearly, marriage is a series of gifts, connected and intertwined with one... Read more
How the Church Built Western Civilization: Part Two
Last week’s essay described how the Benedictine monks began to rebuild continental Europe after the barbaric invasions. After the sack... Read more
Our new Pope’s challenging vision
I wish all of you and your families Easter blessings! This was a joyful Easter for me and I was... Read more
'Gay marriage' and the breakdown of moral argument
In his classic text After Virtue, the philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre lamented, not so much the immorality that runs rampant in... Read more
