By Ronald Rychlak For about 20 years, author John Cornwell wrote as a disenchanted, former Catholic. Some of his early books sold well, but he really hit the big time in the past five years. He still writes books highly critical of the Catholic Church. Now, however, he writes not as a bitter former seminarian, but [...]
Pope John Paul II: "It is as it was." —National Catholic Reporter Online, December 17, 2003 Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy: "As I watched this yet unfinished version of the film, I experienced moments of profound spiritual intimacy with Jesus Christ. It is a film that leads the viewer into prayer and [...]
by Carl E. Olson (Catalyst 12/2004) Two years ago I was engaged in an e-mail exchange with a Fundamentalist pastor, who wrote: But as an effort to still save your soul, if indeed my concerns for you are true, may I urge you to reexamine the Mariolatry of the Church you have bought into. I will [...]
A response to the ADL's December Dilemma Guidelines for the recognition of Christmas for Public Schools Posted on the website of the Anti-Defamation League are guidelines called "December’s Dilemma." Essentially, the ADL proposes to public school administrators, teachers and parents guidelines that in essence banish virtually any mention of Christmas. These guidelines have absolutely no [...]
by William A. Donohue (Catalyst 10/2004) “It is no secret that the Bush administration is engaged in the most radical assault on the separation of church and state in American history.” When I first read that sentence, I wondered about the sanity of the author. Upon reflection, I still do. Susan Jacoby, who penned that line [...]
by Rodney Stark (Catalyst 9/2004) Popular lore, movies, and children’s stories hold that in 1492 Christopher Columbus proved the world is round and in the process defeated years of dogged opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, which insisted that the earth is flat. These tales are rooted in books like A History of the Warfare of Science [...]
by Kenneth Woodward (Catalyst 9/2004) Ostensibly, this is a book about the clergy abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church. But like everything Breslin writes, it is really about himself. Or rather, it is about him writing a book about clergy abuse. He wants us to know that he has lost faith in the church of [...]
excerpts from court testimony on partial-birth abortion (Catalyst 7/2004) After President Bush signed a law banning partial-birth abortion last year, Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion industry sued to have the law overturned. This past spring, several doctors who have performed such abortions testified before judges in various parts of the nation. The following [...]
by Rabbi Daniel Lapin (Catalyst 6/2004) Surely it is now time to analyze the vitriolic loathing demonstrated by various Jewish groups and their leaders toward Mel Gibson over the past six months. This analysis might help forestall some similar ill-conceived and ill-fated future misadventure on the part of self-anointed Jewish leadership. At the very least it [...]
by James Hitchcock (Catalyst 6/2004) Perhaps the most revolutionary changes on the Supreme Court began in the 1930's. That is when President Franklin D. Roosevelt began to choose justices inclined to approach the Constitution in a "broad" and "flexible" spirit. Some of his appointees were crudely anti-Catholic. Hugo L. Black (1937-71) was a lapsed Baptist who, [...]
