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Chow’s China visit: ‘Our man on the mainland,’ or just a man in the middle? Skip to content Bishop Stephen Chow of Hong Kong is on the Chinese mainland this week for a five-day visit to the Archdiocese of Beijing.  Bishop Steven Chow of Hong Kong. Credit: Diocese of Hong Kong via YouTube. The visit, during which he will spend time with Bishop Joseph Li Shan, head of the archdiocese and the leader of the state-sponsored Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, is billed as “historic,” in both Western media and in the mainland press.  It is the first time a Bishop of Hong Kong has officially traveled to the mainland in some 30 years.  But while Chow’s tour is being pushed locally as a sign of the integration of the Catholic Church into Chinese society and the ever-closer ties b...

We would be hell-bound if not for Jesus. If we don’t believe that then the Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, loses all its power. But many of us — most of us? almost all us? — simply don’t believe that it’s true that we are “hell-bound without Jesus.” We have the vague sense that people used to believe in hell and damnation but that we are smarter now. And we think: Didn’t Vatican II say the opposite? Something about how everyone is fine now, without needing to feel guilty all the time? But if we aren’t headed to hell without Jesus, then he didn’t have to suffer, he didn’t have to die, and Divine Mercy Sunday is meaningless. All of Sunday’s readings act as if we are, indeed, hell-bound without Jesus. In the Gospel, Jesus comes to the apostles who are locked away in fear, and sh...

In my series on transportation technologies (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7), we looked at the core principle that drives the lasting life of cities: They are built on communication lines, thanks to which they can trade between their hinterlands and the world. This creates markets, which justify an investment in infrastructure—including new communication lines—which develops the cities and their markets further, and there’s a virtuous cycle where the bigger cities become bigger. If you enjoyed that series, you will enjoy this new sub-series, where we try to understand how big metropoles reached their status. Earlier this week, I started with Why Pittsburgh Rose and Fell in the premium article . Today, I’ll cover Chicago. Later, I will share thoughts on California, Texas, New York, Québec, K...

By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | Apr 13, 2023 Several weeks ago I recommended an an unusually perceptive article by Birgit Kelle in Catholic World Report, sketching out the different possible outcomes of the German Synodal Path. They were, in brief: Reconciliation: in which German Church leaders turn away from their current path and embrace the perennial teachings of the Church. This outcome, Kelle writes, is obviously most desirable but unfortunately least likely. A “dirty schism” in which the German Church effectively breaks from the universal Church, but without any formal rebuke from the Vatican. The result would be a case of conflicting authorities, with the secular government siding with the German rebels against loyal Catholics. This outcome, the author says, ...

The longest day, inevitable incoherence, and waking Fr. Bob Skip to content Happy Friday friends, And a very happy Easter Friday to you all. If last week was Good Friday, and we were all fasting and abstaining, this week is the opposite. Christ is risen, and he wants you to eat some meat. I love the liturgical wisdom and the implied metaphysics of the Easter Octave. The feast of the victory of Christ over death is so comprehensive, it so radically shatters the order of time and space, that a single day cannot contain it.  There’s a temptation by this point to get a little bored with the psalms and antiphons in the Liturgy of the Hours, which don’t vary even a little, for the whole week — at least for me there is. But I try to remind myself that the repetition is intended, it is instru...

The inevitable clergy sexual-abuse report from the Archdiocese of Baltimore is a major news story, for legions of valid reasons. Baltimore is this nation’s “premier see,” the oldest diocese in the United States. This city at the heart of a once-thriving Catholic region that now in a demographic death-dive that is extreme, even by the standards of 21st century America. To move closer to issues discussed in this week’s “Crossroads” podcast (click here to tune that in), we are also talking about the city and Catholic culture in which the Sister Catherine Cesnik vanished in November of 1969. This is the murdered nun who left behind friends, colleagues and former female students who were convinced that she was about to blow the whistle on serial abuser Father Joseph Maskell, one of the villains...

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is the largest individual creator on YouTube. His main channel has 144 million subscribers. His most popular video, a recreation of the Netflix hit “Squid Game,” has amassed an astonishing 401 million views. He is admired for his generous charity work and trusted by millions of parents worldwide, who allow their children to watch his kid-focused videos that consist of pranks, over-the-top challenges, and reaction videos. However, an emerging controversy involving one of his closest friends and longtime co-creator Chris Tyson — who has recently come out as being on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) — is threatening his brand. Millions of young children are being groomed into uncritically accepting transgenderism and trans activism at an impress...

In the first edition of A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, Flannery O’Connor placed the following quote from St. Cyril of Jerusalem at the front of her book: “The dragon is by the side of the road, watching those who pass. Beware lest he devour you. We go to the father of souls, but it is necessary to pass by the dragon.” I encountered this dragon recently, online.  A few weeks ago, one of my Instagram followers informed me that someone had set up a new account impersonating me. This same person shared a screen shot of the fake account (I was unable to find it through my own search, as the imposter had blocked me), and I was shocked to see how authentic this phony account looked. The imposter copied my profile photo, my bio, many of my pictures, and had over three thousand ...

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Pray for them with confidence — because no one is beyond the limit of God’s help. On the pilgrim trail of life, there is always the danger of losing one’s way. The monks of Holy Resurrection Monastery have a particular love for the lesser-known Marian devotion of the Theotokos, Searcher for the Lost. This beautiful devotion calls on Our Lady to lead even the most wayward of souls back into the embrace of her Son. It is truly a devotion for all times, but perhaps it can become a special part of your own celebration of the Paschal season. I had the great pleasure and privilege to spend some time recently with Abbot Moses of Holy Resurrection Monastery and he told me about the monks’ devotion to Our Lady under this particular title. The community was first exposed to the devotion, and the ico...

The curiosity exhibited by many Catholics toward demonic activity is real — and troubling. I’m going to begin this article with a disclaimer. I am not an expert on demonic possession or the occult. In fact, one of my goals in life — and I’m willing to work very hard on accomplishing this goal — is to never become an expert on such matters. Though I cannot point to a specific survey to support this assertion, my goal seems to be increasingly in the minority. Novels, non-fiction books, Russell Crowe interviews, Catholic podcasts, and films about demonic activity and exorcism are all the rage among many Catholics lately. (Even writing about this subject from the counterpoint position, this blog is likely to receive exponentially more views than anything I have written about Mary, grace, the s...