The Christian tradition has always affirmed asceticism, discipline and sacrifice. In the secular manosphere, however, these goods are severed from humility or empathy, as well as any sense of communion.
US Politics
Posted inFaith and Reason
Adding a new script to the bro-sphere
How might the church respond to the situation in which we find ourselves? We ought first to see the manosphere for what it is: a group of people who share not an answer but a question. Second, we ought to be in the business of helping to write new social scripts—scripts that make an inclusive masculinity visible and attractive and accomplishable.
Posted inFaith and Reason
How the Catholic Church can address young men’s grievances
Our tradition tells us what God wants for us: a world of relationships and love where we do our best to cooperate with God’s grace as it helps us grow in virtue and holiness. The sugar high of online hate does not hold up against the deep nourishment of love, and it is our job to let adolescents know that there is a healthier diet available to them.
Posted inFeatures
The forgotten history of the Catholic Church and the American Revolution
The Catholic Church in the United States in 1776 was so tiny that it didn’t play a major role in the American Revolution—but the war affected the local church in important and lasting ways.
Posted inShort Take
Trump’s celebrations of America at 250 add up to a false unity. St. Augustine shows a different way.
National unity based on the exclusion or oppression of certain groups is inherently divisive. It obscures the complexity of our history and culture.
Posted inShort Take
The new know-nothings? Anti-Catholic political rhetoric is making a comeback
At least one prominent Christian nationalist leader envisions an America in which a “Virgin Mary parade” would be illegal.
Posted inNews
DOJ to join Catholic nuns’ suit on NY gender identity law for long-term care facilities
The state law mandates that nursing homes use a resident’s chosen name/pronouns and honor rooming requests based on gender identity.
Posted inShort Take
Archbishop Wenski: The fate of Haitian migrants lies with the Senate
Protections for Haitians in the United States will soon end because the administration has determined, inexplicably, that “country conditions” have improved sufficiently for Haitians to be sent home. Yet Haiti remains a country on the brink.
Posted inNews
Survey: Pope Leo is very popular—though partisan polarization is growing
Broken down across party lines, 84% of U.S. Catholics who lean Democratic approved of Leo in Thursday’s poll, as did 72% of Catholics who lean Republican.
Posted inDispatches
500 years later, the Spanish conqueror of Mexico still stirs controversy on both sides of the Atlantic
While many Mexicans consider Cortés a rapacious historical villain, Hispanophiles, both in Spain and across the Americas, lionize him for bringing Catholicism and Spanish culture to Mesoamerica.