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Statue of St. Peter at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) Two developments—both entirely foreseeable, one so easily avoidable as to be in essence an unforced error—are making the already improbable management of the Fiducia supplicans fiasco almost entirely impossible. The first is the reported influx of requests for papal blessings on parchment sheets for same-sex couples. Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper had the story over the weekend. On paper, it oughtn’t be too difficult to turn them down. Fiducia supplicans, after all, countenances clerics granting unscripted blessings to different sorts of couples who “spontaneously” ask for them in various pastoral situations. In order to obtain one of the parchments, one must provide the names of the persons or the family to receive the blessing ...

Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx adopted similar strategies to discredit belief in God. Freud held that belief in God arose from an unconscious childish wish for protection from a heavenly father figure: “At bottom God is nothing more than an exalted father.” Marx held that belief in God arose from economic alienation: “Religion is the opium of the people.” According to Freud and Marx, the belief in God arose from wish fulfillment or exploitation, and so, it might be concluded, God does not exist.  Both of these critiques are logically fallacious. In his book Socratic Logic, Peter Kreeft points out that the genetic fallacy consists in “refuting” an idea by showing some suspicious psychological origin of it. . . . No matter how egregious the psychological origins of a belief may be, the log...

Credit: mixetto/ iStock Recycle Gift Boxes Put all the shipping and gift boxes you aggregated during the holidays to good use. Simply cut them into large pieces and wrap holiday lights around them to prevent tangling. Your future self will thank you.  Credit: José Araújo/ iStock Store Your Decorations in Sealed Containers Off the Ground Store your cleaned and packed decorations in heavy-duty plastic containers to protect them from insects, moisture, and dust. Clear containers are ideal, but if you can’t find those, simply label the outside to give you a clue about what’s inside. If your containers go into a garage, basement, or storage, stack them on shelving or a wooden pallet to keep them off the floor, elevating them away from potential water damage and pests. If there’...

By Bennett Kleinman Read time: 0 minutes Sitting at opposite ends of Earth, the North Pole and South Pole are two of the coldest and most isolated locations on the planet. The North Pole is an icy expanse incapable of supporting human life (no, not even Santa Claus), while the South Pole is home to a handful of temporary residents and scientific research buildings. Have you ever wondered what is actually at the North Pole and the South Pole? Find out everything you ever wanted to know below.  The North Pole Is Made Entirely of Ice Photo credit: Christopher Wood/ Shutterstock The North Pole sits squarely in the center of the Arctic Ocean, Earth’s smallest ocean, at 90°N latitude. Contrary to what you might think, there’s actually no permanent landmass at this spot — in fact, the neares...

We need to consecrate our families to the Holy Family so that in another 800 years we can look back and see how Christian faith saved civilization once again. Sometimes my students submit their essays or exams with the letters +J.M.J.+ atop every page. Their parents or some teacher taught them to do so. The initials, of course, are themselves a devotion to the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The letters almost stare at me, not as distractions but as a steady reminder of what abides, what unites, and what orders us to our proper end. Public devotions to the Holy Family began in the 14th century, possibly due to the popularity of St. Francis’ nativity creches, and the consequent increase in piety toward St. Joseph, whom theologians began to consider free from venial sin due to his union...