Notre Dame Des Victoires

For the past many years, I have been maintaining an internet ministry that allows me, through comment boxes, to listen in on the questions, complaints, and pontifications of thousands of people in regard to religion. I have noticed that these commentaries sort themselves out in fairly predictable ways, centering around issues of God’s existence, the problem of suffering, the uniqueness of Christianity among the religions of the world, and the whole range of the Church’s sexual teachings. But another theme that presents itself with remarkable regularity is the denial of the objectivity of truth and moral value. I have encountered this position frequently over the years, but in the past few weeks, a spate of such objections have surfaced in the wake of a recent video of mine on the subject. Here is one typical response: “Thirty seconds in, and he’s [“he” means me] obviously dumb: objective moral values? Those…

The past fifteen months have been a time of crisis and deep challenge for our country, and they have been a particular trial for the Catholics. During this terrible COVID period, many of us have been compelled to fast from attendance at Mass and the reception of the Eucharist. To be sure, numerous Masses and Eucharistic para-liturgies have been made available online, and thank God for these. But Catholics know in their bones that such virtual presentations are absolutely no substitute for the real thing. Now that the doors of our churches are commencing to open wide, I would like to urge every Catholic reading these words: Come back to Mass! Why is the Mass of such central importance? The Second Vatican Council eloquently teaches that the Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life”—which is to say, that from which authentic Christianity comes and toward which it…

Los últimos quince meses han sido una época de crisis y de profundos desafíos para nuestro país, y han sido una prueba particular para los católicos. Durante este terrible periodo de COVID, muchos de nosotros nos hemos visto obligados a ayunar de la asistencia a la Misa y de la recepción de la Eucaristía. Ciertamente, se han puesto a disposición numerosas misas y para-liturgias eucarísticas en línea, y gracias a Dios por ellas. Pero los católicos saben íntimamente que esas presentaciones virtuales no sustituyen en absoluto a la realidad. Ahora que las puertas de nuestras iglesias comienzan a abrirse de par en par, me gustaría instar a todos los católicos que lean estas palabras: ¡Vuelvan a la Misa! ¿Por qué la Misa tiene tanta importancia? El Concilio Vaticano II enseña elocuentemente que la Eucaristía es la “fuente y cumbre de la vida cristiana”, es decir, aquello de lo que procede…