Malcolm Muggeridge. “The coming of Jesus into the world is the most stupendous event in human history. . . . As it is, belonging to a civilization which began with the birth of Jesus some two thousand years ago, and reaching the conclusion—to me inescapable—that whatever is truly admirable in the achievements of the succeeding… Read More Fiat Lux. Into History Comes the Light
Her works cover a broad range of topics, but she is best known for those dealing with the nature of wealth, power, fame, and evil, as well as politics, direct democracy, authority, tradition, and totalitarianism. She is also remembered for the controversy surrounding the trial of Adolf Eichmann, for her attempt to explain how ordinary people become actors in totalitarian systems, and for the… Read More Hannah Arendt on the Vicious Harassment of the Totalitarian Mind
With Melvyn Bragg and guests. A fabulous conversation. —- See also, Dickens and Thomas Malthus, the father of global population control. Melvyn Bragg and guests (In Our Time, BBC) discuss Charles Dickens’ novella, written in 1843 when he was 31, which has become intertwined with his reputation and with Christmas itself. Ebenezer Scrooge is the… Read More Onwards Towards Dickens and the meanings of ‘A Christmas Carol’.
Marriage, children and grandparents. The reason men have always, when necessary, fought and died to protect the women they love is not only romantic or sentimental. It is, rather, because, in her mystery, woman carries the future. She is that sacred gift who sustains a people and life itself. To encourage women to join the… Read More She Carries the Future
“….she licensed every form of lust with laws to cleanse the stain of scandal she has spread;”—Dante, The Inferno, canto V, 57 The Nazarene Shepherd. The Nazarene ShepherdWho on Mount of Skulls diedmysteriously possessed what others vied Of power and mightthe mighty ones boastOf armies and battlesinvincible hosts The power to conquer, to strangle, and… Read More Power
It is better to fear the world’s admiration than to fear its mockery or ostracization. “He to whom the eternal Word speaks is set at liberty from a multitude of opinions. From one word are all things, and of this one all things speak; and this is the beginning which also speaks to us. From… Read More “Without this word no one understands or judges rightly”
Photo: Amazon.co.uk employee sorts through books and other retail goods at their facility in Milton Keynes, England. In April 2024, Oxfam America released a report alleging that Amazon and Walmart deploy excessive surveillance methods and other forms of worker control at their US warehouses. The report is based on findings from a survey of and… Read More Amazon and Walmart warehouse conditions likened to “slavery”
Many political conservatives seem to enjoy caricaturing needy families who are receiving SNAP benefits which are now being cut. And I can tell you many families need these programs to make ends meet. It may be the old predestinarian Puritan ethic that makes some conservatives callous, or it may be ignorance. But many girls and… Read More More Cuts
By Dr. Richard Bauckham. A groundbreaking work in New Testament studies, expanded and updated. Winner of the 2007 Christianity Today Book Award in Biblical Studies, this momentous volume argues that the four Gospels are closely based on the eyewitness testimony of those who personally knew Jesus. Noted New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham challenges the prevailing assumption that… Read More Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
Opinion. By Karel van Wolferen.* In a famous exchange between a high official at the court of George W. Bush and journalist Ron Susskind, the official – later acknowledged to have been Karl Rove – takes the journalist to task for working in “the reality-based community.” He defined that as believing “that solutions emerge from your judicious… Read More Through The American Looking Glass. “We Create Our Own Reality,” He Said
This video features a musical rendition of the well-known Psalm 23, titled “Shepherd Me, O God,” composed and performed by Marty Haugen. Shepherd Me, O God” is a reflective liturgical piece based on the text of Psalm 23. The performance is part of the Spirit & Song collection (Disc E), which focuses on contemporary Catholic… Read More Time Out: Shepherd Me
Whenever I spend more than 10 minutes on X I feel like I need a bath. The first line in the song here is all Dylan. The rest reminds me of X, all the derision which many can relate to. Pogo. There’s little real conversation going on at Elon’s X; mostly the gotcha Flypaper is… Read More X
Who is the hunter and who is the hunted after the recent midterm elections? Trump seeks to end the war with Iran before the Democrats do it their way. Congress is preparing aggressive investigations into President Trump and his administration following the recent midterm elections. This includes potential criminal investigations as Democrats assert their oversight… Read More Trump’s DOJ Strikes Back At Democrats.
Our New Religion Isn’t Enough. Freya India.Jun 04, 2024. These days it seems like everything is described as a new religion. Social justice is a new religion. So is climate activism. Trumpism, too. I saw a funny tweet recently about how girlboss feminism has now reinvented the Sabbath, with the shocking news that we might benefit from “one lazy day” a… Read More Who is God? The Universe?
by Dietrich von Hildebrand From Trojan Horse in the City of God, Note: what follows by Dietrich Von Hildebrand is lengthy but well worth a print-out and read. Does Teilhard’s cosmic Christ remain the transcendent Lord of all creation, or does Christ for him become the culminating product of cosmic evolution?— SH I MET TEILHARD DE… Read More Teilhard de Chardin
Or how to squeeze the generally heterodox Union Theological Seminary into two Millennia of unambiguous Catholic teaching. Raymond Brown’s Wayward Turn in Biblical Theory by Msgr. George A. Kelly Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, January / February Note: Raymond E. Brown was professor emeritus at Union Theological Seminary (UTS) in New York City, where he taught for 29… Read More Raymond E. Brown’s Mischievous Tactic: the “Scientifically Controlled Evidence”
Pray for us
Note: I take no position on the facts, claims and assertions found in the following essay, except to say that it is all very interesting and that the essay should be preserved alongside all of the rest of the scholarship on the topic. —- Stephen Hand “Father Edouard Dani is a Belgian Jesuit. Professor of theology… Read More Fr. Edouard Dhanis, Fr. Joseph Ratzinger* and Fatima.
Excerpted from Sacred Scripture and the writings of Dr. Mark Miravalle, professor of theology at Franciscan University, Steubenville. Rev. 12: A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to… Read More Patristic Sources and Excerpts on Mary
Art terrorism:
…as Trump bumbles his way into and out of war, just as his predecessors did, and for failing to keep many of his pocket book promises. …. Voters, if many of the top Democrat echelon have their way, have chosen more abortion, more gender confusion and reassignment surgery on route to Utopia, which means Nowhere,… Read More The Political Left is in Ecstacy
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” – Psalm 147:3 “Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.” – Jeremiah 17:14 A most beautiful offering for the sick of body, soul or mind. Robert Reed today is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of… Read More Rosary for the Sick. Sorrowful Mysteries.
Christs love and service to all, to native born and to foreigners whom we encounter. The Order of Saint John, more commonly called the Order of Malta, lived by its credo, “Our Lords, the Sick and the Poor.” The members of the Order make a promise upon investiture to serve, to the best of their… Read More “Our lords the sick and the poor.”
By Malcolm Muggeridge ‘Feed My Sheep’ An advantage of being, as I am, only a belated reader of the New Testament, is that one often finds a freshness of enchantment in sentences and phrases which, I imagine, come to seem commonplace to more erudite and systematic readers. This is what happened with the three words,… Read More The great Moloch – Consumption
They Scarcely Noticed the Recent French Riots. One wonders why Rory Stewart & Alastair Campbell decided to practically ignore the Far Left’s recent incendiary attacks on France. It is a major European nation after all. And they say they care more about EU principles than power. But then again when the extreme Socialist Brethren are… Read More The Pied Pipers of the ‘Liberal World Order’
Medical experimentation tests our humanity. It also tests the humanity we ascribe to experimental subjects. by Joe AllenSeptember 10, 2021, Salvo magazine [SH Note: this essay is placed here simply to show again what’s going on in the world, and in the world of “science”. The same “scientists” who call for abortion, euthanasia, population reduction,… Read More What’s It Like To Be A “Blob Of Brain”?
We who are alive today have lived in extraordinary times. Never in history were so many ordinary people lured off the narrow way by so many lying signs, technological wonders and temptations. Few of us have walked through it unwounded. There is little romanticism in not being a hero. Many of us men and women… Read More Our Saving Wounds
“As Hitler ramps up the German war machine, he remains obsessed with one idea: uprooting Jews from the Reich. The Nazis embark on a campaign of totalitarian oppression against them, persecuting Jewish people in every aspect of life. They are excluded from most professions, forbidden from intermarrying, Jewish children are bullied and excluded from schools,… Read More Hitler’s Obsession
A demographic boom looms by 2050Muslim influencer Mohammed Hijab has publicly encouraged Muslims in Western countries to have larger families. Responding to Elon Musk on X, he wrote, “Muslims of the West, get married and have many kids try and aim… Read more
The year 1979 marked the beginning of the end for communism. Father Raymond J. de Souza In January, Deng Xiaoping, having seized power just weeks before, began the economic reforms that would remake Chinese communism. On June 2, 1979, Pope John Paul II returned for his first papal visit to Poland with a more ambitious… Read More Saint Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa
” An unique and intimate performance from the legendary band that defined the early 70s folk sound. They ruled the Top-10 charts with their evocative harmonies, sometimes wild lyrics and acoustic-styled musicianship”. Alternative setlist here . Some of the songs made popular by America: Riverside Ventura Highway You Can Do Magic(Russ Ballard cover) Don’t Cross the… Read More Time Out for America
The value of sufferings in Christ By Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.. O Jesus Crucified, teach me the science of the Cross. 1. The Passion of Jesus teaches us in a concrete way that in the Christian life we must be able to accept suffering for the love of God. This is a… Read More Personal knowledge of the Cross
Site Summation – updated – Chat Gpt Catholic Critique presents itself as “Christian World View & Analysis,” edited by Stephen Hand. Its stated purpose is not formal teaching but the sharing of opinions, interpretive principles, excerpts, reflections, and outside resources judged helpful in spiritually challenging times. The site repeatedly frames itself as Catholic, Christ-centered, culturally… Read More Catholic Critique — Alphabetical & Topic Index
John Allen’s Passing. “John L. Allen Jr., a well-known Vatican reporter and editor of Crux, passed away on January 22, 2026, at the age of 61. His death followed a three-year battle with stomach cancer.” I first met John Allen in St. Peter’s Cathedral, Rome in 1999. In some ways during Mr. Allen’s NCR and… Read More Benedict XVI, John Allen and Myself
A little of this and a little of that. There’s nothing new here. Everyone knows that most theological Progressivists do not really accept all that the Second Vatican Council teaches regarding the Mass, the Eucharist; (instead they said “they shared their bread” when feeding the five thousand and “that sharing was the actual miracle!,” I heard… Read More Progressivist Cafeteria Theology
+ If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. —1 Jn 4:20 “Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; 4 and… Read More Why Some People Just Can’t or Won’t Apologize
12 And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other… “What crime has this man committed? Pilate demanded?The I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.” But with loud… Read More Common Cause and A Democratic Vote.
“The Saint is a medicine because he is an antidote. Indeed that is why the saint is often a martyr; he is mistaken for a poison because he is an antidote. He will generally be found restoring the world to sanity by exaggerating whatever the world neglects, which is by no means always the same… Read More Saints of Flesh and Blood
From the Introduction: “… my critiques of his significant departures from the perennial teaching and practice of the Church… … “The twelve-year reign of Pope Francis was a time of tremendous upheaval and doctrinal confusion. This book chronicles the troubles caused by Pope Francis’s teachings on various matters, such as the authorization of giving Holy… Read More A Papacy of Confusion by Fr. Gerald E. Murray
…the love of many will grow cold. When did it become fun to hurt others by lies and detraction, and when only winning matters? Satan laughs. “Jesus predicted that the love of many would grow cold as part of His answer to the disciples’ question, “What will be the sign of your coming, and of… Read More The Olivet Discourse on the Omega of Time.
By Ronny Reyes Published Sep. 8, 2026 Updated Sep. 8, 2026, 12:26 p.m. ETMake New York Post a Preferred Source Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected new claims that he was directly warned that Hamas was planning a major operation before the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, according to a new book. UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed allegedly spoke… Read More Benjamin Netanyahu furiously disputes new claim he was warned about Oct. 7 attacks 10 days before
