The hope behind this website has always been that every article selected, whether positive or relatively negative, would in some way lead to contemplation of the Word made flesh (Jn.1:1-14) and His savings acts for us, and “not for us only but also for the whole world.” (1 Jn 2:2). For “God was in Christ… Read More Catholic Critique
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
In her biography of G.K. Chesterton published in 1943, Maisie Ward tells of this remarkable trait of the great convert and Catholic apologist: “(He) liked everybody very much, and everything very much. He liked even the things most of us dislike. He liked to get wet. He liked to be tired. After…[a particular period of]… Read More G. K. Chesterton and The Eternal Thank You
When I began this website it was after I had debated within myself, video podcasts or the written word? God knows I’m handsome enough to do a podcast 🙃. But then I thought that since I wanted to confess the faith, despite my frailties and sins, for my grandchildren’s generation especially, the written word is… Read More Podcast Video or the Written Word?
Dr. Arthur Holmes, History of Philosophy. Wheaton College: Repetitio est mater studiorum. This is an excellent series, it is very informative and fair to the ancients, to Catholic, Protestant and Enlightenment philosophies from Thales to Sartre and beyond. 81 comprehensive episodes. One can learn something new with every listen, or relisten, of any episode in… Read More History of Philosophy Lectures
“Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream”—John Lennon Photo by Yoko Ono. Perhaps it is one of those curious fearful symmetries(1) that the words of John Lennon quoted above are found in the Beatles’ album titled ‘Revolver’…and that he was finally gunned down, shot multiple times in the back by a “fan”. I… Read More John Lennon and The Seductions of Beautiful Nothing
One body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father of us all” — Eph. 4: 4-6 Every ecclesial community brings its tradition(s) to bear in the exegesis and understanding of Scripture. Even independent Protestant Fundamentalist pastors and larger Protestant denominations(1) employ their traditions [i.e., their received community understanding of texts] as a… Read More Catholicism, Tradition and Protestantism
A Quick Way to Be Throttled: Regularly say and publish facts and opinions contrary to popular opinions. “Social media throttling refers to the practice where platforms limit the visibility of a user’s posts, making it less likely for their content to be seen by others. This can occur due to increased competition for attention, resulting… Read More A Quick Way to Be Throttled or Ostracized
Reviewed by SH. Pope Pius XII, saving friend of the Jewish People. If you save one [Jewish] life, it is as if you’ve saved the whole world”—Jewish saying. Rabbi David G Dalin, in his 2005 book, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope, has marshaled an extensive documentation which shows to us today what the first post-war… Read More The Animus Behind the Slandering of Pius XII.
It is, all the Saints say, better to work quietly, even as kind or critical stragglers find their way to you daily in order to at least ponder the great questions of our time, before our time is done. In working this way we can constantly take serious stock of where we are, spiritually (it’s… Read More It is not good to have fan clubs praise you
Apostasy is cruel. Not only does it walk “the broad way which leads to eternal destruction” (Matthew 7:13), but increasingly, in an age of bewilderment and despair, it leads straightway to temporal destruction as well, whether from AIDS, Fentanyl, euthanasia, or death by one’s own hand. Apostasy is cruel because, as St. Paul says, when… Read More Of UFOs, Apostasy, and Death
I’ve always loved Camus. But his shadow side must be faced. In his novella, The Fall, the Algerian-French philosopher and novelist Albert Camus stops lamenting social injustice for a moment as well as the “meaninglessness” and “absurdity” of an empty Nietzschean universe in general, and turns instead to biography, specifically to his own cruelty. Camus was a… Read More The Falls of Albert Camus
+ +
by Stephen Hand In Evelyn Waugh’s stunning classic, Brideshead Revisited, there is a scene which presses on my mind these days as I ponder so many forces gathering against a Church weakened greatly by the sins of her own children, both clerical and lay. All of us. It is the time when Sebastian, Lord Alex… Read More Lord Marchmain’s Long Hate
“God is dead but given the way of men there may be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. And we will have to vanquish his shadow, too.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, # 109 At the very dawn of the 20th century, on 25 August in the year… Read More “Straying, as through infinite nothingness”: The Collapse of Nietzsche
“Frequent Visits Without Engagement: Your audience is likely part of X’s “lurker” demographic—i.e., users who consume content but rarely interact. Studies suggest that 90% of social media users are lurkers, 9% engage occasionally, and only 1% are heavy contributors (often called the 90-9-1 rule). Your frequent visitors fall into this 90%, consuming your content without… Read More 90% Lurkers on Social Media
You may be a traditional Catholic with ten beautiful home-schooled children who are each proficient in academics and in the arts. You may contribute substantially to both your church’s financial soundness and, to all appearances, to her reputation for spiritual integrity and growth . You may work hard, have a secure financial portfolio of stocks,… Read More The Successful, Proud, and Conflicted Traditionalist
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 speaketh to us. From one… Read More “Without this word no one understands or judges rightly”
Due to Original Sin, apart from grace we inevitably fall back into “the lust of of flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” (1 Jn 2:14-16) and into idolatry, just as the children of Israel grew tired of waiting for Moses, for God’s very Word, and so collapsed into the abyss… Read More The Golden Calf Our Default Condition
Perhaps most Catholics know her story. Saint Margaret of Castello was born into a well-to-do family near Florence, Italy in 1287. To the great distress of her parents, upon her birth they discovered that she suffered from a variety of severe physical ailments. She was a dwarf, had a curved spine that left her hunched… Read More Patron St. Margaret of Castello
… in your pocket. I don’t want money or offerings. Keep it for your family, your neighbors, and Christ’s poor. I only want to share content that will possibly edify, inform, and console in this time of global and ecclesial destabilization. Here at this website I mostly share the invaluable work of others, past and… Read More Catholic Critique. If there is any value in this website, please keep your money…
“The Order of the Parts of the universe to each other exists in virtue of the Order of the Whole universe to God.” — St. Thomas Aquinas, C.G.1,83 By Malcom Muggeridge First Lux! “From its triumphant opening: In the beginning was the Word,and the Word was with God,and the Word was God,” to its beautiful… Read More Into the Darkness Comes the Light.
2007: In the preface to the book John Allen wrote on the Popes ascendance, “The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church” by John L. Allen. “Because the new pope [Benedict XVI] has been a highly public figure generating diverse reactions,… Read More Benedict XVI, John Allen and Myself
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”.… Read More First Amendment Protections
