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Toward an Incarnational Culture

In a recent article on Catholic health care and Catholic culture, I referred to Catholic culture as the “incarnation of Catholic ideas in the concrete circumstances of the social order.” I used the word “incarnation” advisedly, for Catholicism possesses a supremely incarnational vision of reality. Another way of saying this is to recognize in Catholicism an intensely sacramental view of reality. This has profound significance for the formation of culture. It is worth exploring in greater depth.

Restoring a Catholic Culture: Where do we start?

Shortly after the US presidential elections I wrote a column in this space lamenting the failure of Catholic Americans to join in a strong political bloc supporting a culture of life. Many readers responded enthusiastically to that column, and especially to these words:

Sigrid Undset in this Vale of Tears

Sigrid Undset (1882 – 1949) is regarded by many to have been the greatest novelist who ever lived. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 primarily for her signature work, Kristin Lavransdatter, a trilogy focused on the life of a Catholic woman in medieval Scandinavia. Undset herself had converted to Catholicism in 1924. From a few years before her conversion until her death at age 67, she strove to make the deepest realities transparent to the world as only a fully-committed Catholic can.

Health Care, Catholic Care, and Catholic Culture

Though people differ on the remedy, nearly everyone agrees that health care in the United States is broken. As a company owner who provides top insurance coverage to his employees, I find that health care is not really broken for us. It’s just very expensive. But I hear plenty of horror stories from friends, and the national statistics are nothing to write home about. Several aspects of the problem demand special attention from Catholics.

What's wrong with Catholic voters, Continued: answering readers' arguments

Nearly a month ago, immediately after the US presidential elections, I wrote a column in this space lamenting the failure of Catholic voters to unite in opposition to the "culture of death." That column--What's wrong with Catholic voters? What's wrong with Catholics?"--drew more responses from readers than anything else I have ever written online.

Now and Tomorrow: The Universal Destination of Goods

Most Americans are fairly affluent. Most Catholics—at least those who take their Faith seriously—worry about this from time to time. If properly directed, such worry is very healthy. We weren’t created to feather our own nests, and if we expend too much of our time and resources on feathering, it interferes mightily with our response to the One who loved us into being. For this reason, it is a good thing to reflect on the comforts we enjoy, the plans we have for our future, and the will of God. And if that doesn’t typically make us uncomfortable, then either something is spiritually wrong or we must be very atypical American Catholics indeed.

The shameful betrayal of a courageous pastor

St. Mary's church in Greenville, South Carolina, is a model Catholic parish, with an outstanding young pastor. The liturgy is beautiful and reverent; the religious instruction is meticulous and orthodox; the lay people are numerous and active. There is a busy school (run by the Nashville Dominicans), and each year there are dozens of adults welcomed into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil.

Modern Knowledge

In these modern times, knowing things is paradoxically very difficult. Whether in the university, on the street or within families, we find ourselves divided between absolutists and relativists, conservatives and liberals, believers and atheists, creationists and evolutionists, poets and scientists. Indeed, the world is invariably divided into two kinds of people on every subject imaginable—all, more or less, depending upon what we think we “know”. Whenever we assert a particular proposition (say an interpretation of history, a political conclusion, or even a statement about the measurable material world, such as global warming), we find a hundred facts immediately adduced in favor of a contrary position. We can look up support for any idea at all on the Internet, in mere seconds. Just when we think it has never been easier to know the truth about anything, we become hopelessly embroiled in a sea of contradictions about everything.

Discouragement and Faith

An impressively large number of people around the country prayed hard for the election of pro-life candidates on November 4th. Not only were there vast numbers of people praying privately, but there were innumerable publicly-announced prayer gatherings, novenas, chaplets, rosaries, holy hours and periods of Eucharistic Adoration. These prayers were offered by people of deep faith who knew that we needed a miracle and who relied on God to provide it. But apparently God did not respond. So why do we still believe in Him?

What's wrong with Catholic voters? What's wrong with Catholics?

Yesterday, according to the exit polls, between 53 and 54% of American Catholic voters cast their ballots for Barack Obama, despite the Democratic candidate's enthusiastic support for unrestricted legal abortion.

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