Kody W. Cooper

The common good of justice and peace is rooted in the foundational principle of the dignity of the person, however, our duty to love the stranger as oneself does not upend but rather flows from properly ordered love of self, family, community, etc. There are various policies that could be prudential measures to address the immigration crisis. The order of charity supports hardening the border first. Then, it is entirely reasonable to discuss how to balance our responsibilities toward migrants. We are a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.

Christopher Shannon

American culture has experienced an ongoing series of declarations of independence from received understandings of the founding ideals of freedom and equality. Advocates of gender fluidity or “transgenderism” assert that they are simply advancing the next frontier in the sexual revolution that triumphed in the 1960s. When we observe the preceding historical narrative, we see that the sexual revolution and its current expression in transgenderism are as American as apple pie.

Maggie Phillips

Repeat visitors to spooky immersive theater are in search of something that the secular realm has tried to stamp out: enchantment. A world that has rejected the supernatural is discovering that humanity will insist on reinventing it. But in the absence of a universally accepted definition of the true, the good, or the beautiful, the substitute enchantments are something at once far stranger and less fantastical than any religion.

Alex Taylor

“Closing our eyes to what is happening in our own era doesn’t move us any nearer to knowing how God might be calling us to respond to it.” In this second portion of Alex Taylor’s interview with author Katy Carl, they discuss why Catholics should engage with contemporary creative works in addition to the treasures of the past and why Catholics should strive to create such new work.

Alejandro Terán-Somohano

Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel, Klara and the Sun, is the story of an android named Klara, an AI-enabled artificial friend built for Josie, a young girl with a mysterious and unspecified illness. When the novel is analyzed alongside Joseph Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity, we uncover a deeper understanding of love as the most primordial force in the universe, the meaning of faith and truth, and the use of technology in our lives.

Mark Bradford

It’s “a reminder of the joy we can find through genuine connection with, and acceptance from, others.” Mary Delaney is the Director of Malta Camp USA, a summer camp for young adults with intellectual disabilities sponsored by the Order of Malta. Mark Bradford joined Mary to learn more and find out how to help support their noble mission and annual events.

Urban Hannon 

If we are to renew our liturgical formation through the “rediscovery of a theological understanding of the liturgy,” as the Holy Father has called for in Desiderio Desideravi, then it is important for us to include the contribution of the theologian par excellence, the Common Doctor of Holy Church, St. Thomas Aquinas. It is not a mistake that the liturgy is mysterious, and we can look to St. Thomas’ teaching to better understand the mysteries we celebrate.

Dr. Christopher Kaczor

Whatever “dogma” is, Sam Harris doesn’t like it. He repeatedly condemns dogma, a term for which he offers a multitude of understandings. So, what is dogma actually? Despite Jordan Peterson’s efforts to pull Harris away from caricatures during their discussion, Harris gives his own idiosyncratic meanings to the term and then criticizes figments of his imagination.

Pat Flynn

This article is for the person who really does wish they could believe in God, but for whatever reason, finds themselves unable to. A philosophical approach to God can help by removing barriers to belief through a conceptual clarification of what is meant by God. To understand why philosophers believe in God can create a new opportunity for genuine belief—an opportunity where one can begin a spiritual journey afresh, founded firmly upon reason.

Dr. Richard Clements

Considerably more emphasis tends to be placed on “systole” than on “diastole,” on “acting with God’s help” than on “resting in God,” on action than on contemplation. We need both. Faith apart from works is, indeed, dead, but works apart from a faith that is rooted in prayer and contemplation tend to be dead as well, or soon will be. As Balthasar puts it, “Whoever does not come to know the face of God in contemplation will not recognize it in action, even when it reveals itself to him in the face of the oppressed and humiliated.”