Topics

Was Pope Benedict XVI Holding Back the Destroying Flood?

LITURGY & THE CHURCH'S DESTINY

Pieter Vree

Key to the great apostasy is the liturgy. “The way we treat the liturgy,” Benedict said, “determines the destiny of the faith and the Church.”

Are We Living in the Last Days?

A TIME OF TESTING

James Patrick

Scripture and Tradition testify that the order of this world ends in the chaos from which it was formed when the hand of God withdraws its providential order.

Will There Be Sex in Heaven?

THE SEVEN-HUSBANDS QUESTION REVISITED

Randall B. Smith

Christ’s answer to the Sadducees does not indulge the misunderstandings that underlie their question but points us back to what is fundamental.

Will There Be Marriage in Heaven?

WHAT GOD HATH JOINED TOGETHER

Michael V. McIntire

Is the bond of unity of man and wife, created by oath in a sacramental marriage, also a spiritual bond that survives mortal death?

The Variety & Theological Implications of Private Revelations

THE ODD CASE OF ADRIENNE VON SPEYR -- PART II

Richard E. Gallagher

Evil spirits, often in a very subtle manner, have been far more clever and more destructive of sound spiritual thinking than generally supposed.

Choose Your Own Eternity

LOOKING BEYOND REWARD & PUNISHMENT

Pete Jermann

What follows death is the extension into eternity of what we chose in this world. When we pass from this life, what we wanted here will be what we want forever.

Why American Politics Marginalizes Catholic Voters

SEARCHING FOR A CATHOLIC THEO-POLITICAL CONSENSUS

Kenneth Colston

American Catholics must be careful not to be more American than Catholic, especially since American politics is essentially Protestant.

Scalfari Strikes Again

Knowing Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari's habit of not taking notes during interviews, why does Francis continue to allow him to stir up controversy and cause PR headaches for the Vatican?

Are There Atheists in Heaven?

Pope Francis well knows that whenever he speaks into a microphone, he is addressing not only those present but the whole world, in his capacity as leader of the Catholic Church. Therefore, his words are open to scrutiny.

The Antichrist in Political Philosophy

ON THE CATASTROPHIC INNER-WORLDLY END

James V. Schall

We are each created for a supernatural end that is, as such, beyond our nature but not beyond our possibility since we are also given the grace to accept it.

Isaac Newton: Scientist, Theologian & End-Times Prophet

COUNTDOWN TO 2060

Carl Sundell

Newton's terminal date is reckoned by the prophets Daniel and John that the return of Christ will commence 1,260 years after the restoration of the Roman Empire.

The Davidic Typological Basis for the Dogma of the Assumption

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN MOTHER

Marcelo A. D'Asero

This Marian dogma is integrally related to the notion of our Lady as the Queen of Heaven or, rather, the queen mother of the Messiah, the Son of David.

Obama the Great & Powerful

The American public has greeted the ascent of Barack Obama with quasi-religious zeal, as exemplified in his 2008 campaign slogan, "Faith, Hope, Obama."

Memory, Regret & God's Merciful Forgetting

LIVING IN THE GAP

Robert Benson

Pope John Paul II wrote that we live our earthly lives in the gap between the person we are and the person we ought to be.

Dare We Hope for the Salvation of the Unborn?

GUEST COLUMN

Robert Benson

God's mercy is unfathomable, and He is truly the Good Father who knows how to give what's best to His children.

Gurus of a Post-Human Age

GARRETT HARDIN & JAMES RACHELS

Anne Barbeau Gardiner

The influence of post-humanist academics reveals how completely the secular academic world has embraced the culture of death.

Avoiding Guilt by Association

False doomsday prophecies and other gross theological errors that present faith as delusional and oppressive can taint all forms of Christianity and implicate all Christians to some extent.

The Luxury of Religious Fanaticism

Though we in the West have the luxury of religious fanaticism and the freedom to believe or reject false religious claimants as we see fit, our Christian brethren in other countries aren't so "blessed."

When Prophets Don't Pass the Test

THERE ARE SOME MYSTERIES MATHEMATICS WON'T SOLVE

William F.E. Mahoney

That there will be an end of this world is unquestionably sound Christian doctrine, but when that end will come is another question altogether.

Covenant Correction

The USCCB has taken the opportunity to clarify ambiguities in its document on Catholic-Jewish relations.

I Believe in the Life of the World to Come

DO YOU?

Abbot Joseph

Today's enlightened and "free" unbelievers are nothing more than "the loose-jointed marionettes of contemporaneity."

Eschatology According to Jacques Maritain

DAMNED YET FORGIVEN

Alice von Hildebrand

Jacques Maritain claims that the inhabitants of Hell, while hating God as the Author of glory, still love Him as the Author of "being."

Did Mary's Assumption Really Occur?

DOES IT REALLY MATTER?

Hurd Baruch

In the absence of a credible dormition narrative from the early Church, is there any other source to turn to for a plausible description?

What Rapturists Miss About Rapture Theology

SALVATION FROM SUFFERING?

Paul Catalanotto

How can the Christian suffer as Christ suffered if he is airlifted off the face of the earth before he can undergo the most severe kind of suffering (the "tribulation")?

On Freeing Children From Limbo

TWO PROPOSALS

Hurd Baruch

Parents experience great grief when they do not have the moral assurance of the salvation of their unbaptized children.

Balthasar, Christ’s Descent & the Empty Hell

Anne Barbeau Gardiner

Review of Light in Darkness: Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Catholic Doctrine of Christ's Descent into Hell

Apocalypse Now (and Then)

Mary McWay Seaman

Kirsch's absorbing personality profile of the scrupulous, dogmatic, and uncompromising John portrays him as a man in great distress in a pagan culture.

Christian Zionists: False Friends of Israel

EDITORIAL

Dale Vree

Christian Zionism is not concerned with giving the Jews a homeland. It is concerned with the Rapture.

How Lovely!

Communio, the premier journal for whooping up Hans Urs von Bathasar, informs us confidently that all men are indeed saved.

Automatic Forgiveness

Fr. Ron Rolheiser says Jesus provides automatic forgiveness. Commit suicide if you want. Fr. Ron is giving you permission.

The Broad & Comfortable Road to Lukewarm Christianity & Destruction

THE DEADLY PERIL OF IGNORING "THE NARROW GATE"

Frederick W. Marks

If our Lord could use "narrow gate" imagery to spur His listeners to repentance, then so can we.

Eternal Consequences

Anne Barbeau Gardiner

Review of Inferno and Purgatorio by Dante, translated and edited by Anthony Esolen

A Groundbreaking Book

Ronda Chervin

Jews of Old Testament times had to insulate themselves totally against the Gentiles because the pagan gods were demonic spirits.

Beware of Ronitis, The Latest Deadly Disease

Fr. Ron says suicide is a "painful disease."

The Dubious Adrienne von Speyr

CORRECTING THE DEPOSIT OF FAITH?

Anne Barbeau Gardiner

Perhaps tied to old memories from her pre-Catholic youth, Speyr's private revelations seem to conflict with Catholic teaching on vital points.

What Is the Purpose of This World?

TRUTH OR (ULTIMATE) CONSEQUENCES

James V. Schall

God took a risk in inviting, not demanding, our acceptance of salvation. The invitation can be accepted, or it can be rejected.

That Mosquito on the Tuxedo

EDITORIAL

Dale Vree

Last Judgment (Lite)

TOPSY-TURVY ESCHATOLOGY

John M. Grondelski

According to the "Prophecies of St. Malachy," only two popes would follow John Paul II: "De Gloria Olivae" (the Glory of the Olive) and "Petrus Romanus" (Peter the Roman).

The Sky Is Falling! (Yet Again)

Michael Morassutti

The authors of "The Coming Global Superstorm" seem strangely excited about an imminent climatic cataclysm.

The Failures of the New Lectionary

WHERE SOME SINS ARE NOT IMMORAL, ETC.

Chene Richard Heady

It entirely translates and edits out the Bible’s teaching on fornication, and renders the doctrine of Hell if not invisible, then opaque.

The Inflated Reputation of Hans Urs von Balthasar

COMPASSION TO A FAULT

Regis Scanlon

Hoping that all will be saved – when Scripture says that some are lost – is like hoping that no one ever sins when we know that Adam and Eve sinned.

Speak Ye Uncomfortably to Jerusalem

"Harden not your hearts! And soften not your seats."

"Wake Up! Jesus Is Coming!"

THE APOCALYPSE HAS ALREADY BEGUN

Maia Wojciechowska Rodman

On the Difference Between a Hero & an Apostle

GUEST COLUMN

Will Hoyt

Fido in Heaven?

LETTER FROM EUROPE

John Warwick Montgomery

The Last Days & the Church

GUEST COLUMN

John J. Reilly

Predictive Scripture differs from the odd example of human prescience in that it tells us the eternal significance of events to which it alludes.

America in the 1980s: Under the Sway of "Conservative" Constantinianism

DID GOD GIVE AMERICA THE ATOM BOMB?

John Lukacs

Thomas Merton on War, Gog & Magog

“ULTIMATELY THERE IS NO HUMANISM WITHOUT GOD”

David D. Cooper

Merton’s decision to get actively involved in a campaign to abolish war came at a time when Cold War tensions reached a flash point and atmospheric nuclear testing was increasing.

Bad Things & Good People Revisited

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Vertical religion and horizontal religion are parts of an integral whole. You go up by going sideways, and you go best sideways by focusing upward.

Heaven: A Stumbling Block?

WHAT DO WE REALLY BELIEVE ABOUT ETERNAL LIFE?

Mike Filce

Our impoverished ideas of Heaven often result in our overvaluing our earthly life and giving it more attention than the one to come.