Essay
A Clash of Liberalisms
When framing out a room, everyone knows that the first corner must be square, or else the second will be off at the far end of the wall. Even if the first corner is imperceptibly off, […]
Features
Features
Against saying “Catholics believe”
My sophomore English teacher taught an invaluable writing lesson that has stayed with me: “Show, don’t tell.” In explicating texts, we should make our point directly without saying we are doing so. Rather than begin […]
Analysis
How not to limit free speech
I am by no means a free speech absolutist. In an article at Postliberal Order a couple of years ago, I set out the natural law position on the issue, noting that the teleology or final cause of […]
Features
Leo XIV: Our Anti-Americanist Pope
One of the more noteworthy episodes during the late nineteenth-century tenure of Pope Leo XIII was the pope’s response to the so-called “Americanist” controversy in the United States. Leo XIII wrote two encyclicals addressing issues […]
Analysis
Catholicism and Israel: Perspective and insight from a Dominican theologian
Although Israel is not central to Principles of Catholic Theology: Book 4, On the Church, Mary, Nature and Grace, a new collection of essays by prominent theologian Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP, the book offers two […]
Essay
The need for the Madonna in reforming our culture
As Tom Holland’s 2021 book Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World reveals, in every past civilization (even our Greco-Roman forbearers), women were either commodities, guarded by their families as dynastic assets, or simply booty, “sex […]
Features
Bishops warn of “ecocidal tragedy” as illegal mining devastates Ghana
The Catholic bishops in Ghana have warned that the government risks being complicit in the “ecocidal tragedy of monumental proportions” if it fails to act swiftly and decisively on illegal gold mining, known locally as […]
Chapp's Schtick
Reflections on Dilexi Te, the first magisterial document of Leo XIV’s papacy
Pope Leo XIV’s first magisterial document of his papacy, Dilexi Te (“I have loved you”), has understandably generated a lot of interest. An apostolic exhortation is a fairly low-level document in terms of the classical criteria for […]
Columns
Uncovering the papal lessons hidden beneath the ice
As the internet erupted over Pope Leo’s blessing of a 20,000-year-old block of melting Greenland ice, I remained happily oblivious to the firestorm while delivering some lectures on creation in the Bay Area. After completing my […]
Features
Pondering the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas on immigration
Leo XIII became pope in February 1878. Within 18 months of his election, he issued his encyclical Aeterni Patris, recommending St. Thomas Aquinas as bearing “golden wisdom” and promoting the renewal of Thomistic studies as […]