George Weigel is an American author, political analyst, and social activist. He currently serves as a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Weigel was the Founding President of the James Madison Foundation. He is the author of the best-selling biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope and Tranquillitas Ordinis: The Present Failure and Future Promise of American Catholic Thought on War and Peace. He is a Catholic theologian and one of America’s leading public intellectuals. He holds EPPC’s William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies. From 1989 through June 1996, Mr. Weigel was president …
Author: Manuel Xavier
Fr. Thomas Dubay Videos
Father Thomas Edward Dubay, S.M., (1921-2010), was an American Catholic priest, author, and retreat director. He wrote over 20 books on Catholic spirituality, in which he emphasized the importance of renewed conversion and contemplative prayer, and he traveled worldwide to teach at parishes, seminaries, and monasteries. Father Thomas Dubay, S.M., was a well-known retreat master and highly respected author of books on the spiritual life. He had spent the last 30 years or so giving retreats and writing on the spiritual life, on which he had written some 20 books. He was considered an expert on the teaching of St. …
Fr. Robert Spitzer Videos
Robert J. Spitzer SJ is a Jesuit priest, philosopher, educator, author, speaker, and retired President of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Spitzer is founder and currently active as president of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing educational materials on the complementarity of science, philosophy, and faith. He is also president of the Spitzer Center of Ethical Leadership, dedicated to helping Catholic and for-profit organizations develop leadership, constructive cultures, and virtue ethics. Robert J. Spitzer SJ is a Jesuit priest, philosopher, educator, author, speaker, and retired President of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Spitzer …
Fr. Michael Schmitz Videos
Father Michael Schmitz, director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Duluth and chaplain for the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, inspires and educates through his priesthood and preaching. He also works with Ascension Presents’ online platform to share the Gospel. Ordained in 2003 at St. Paul Seminary, he has preached across the country about the love of God and the call of Jesus Christ for saints to be raised up in the Church. Father Mike’s hope is that these saints will redeem the entire world for Christ.
Frank Duff – Founder
Frank Duff – June 7, 1889 – November 7, 1980 Founded the Legion of Mary on September 7, 1921 There are a couple of basic questions that we need to ask about Frank Duff and the process for the Cause of his beatification. Why do we want Frank Duff beatified? What is the reason for spending so much time and energy on the Cause when there are so many other forms of apostolic work that might seem more urgent and necessary? One reason is that the prayer and work involved in the process of beatification is itself a tremendous form of …
Excommunication
Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P., teaches moral theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., and serves as senior editor of Aleteia English Excommunication: What is it and does the Church still do it? Often it is the person who chooses to excommunicate himself. The Excommunication of Robert the Pious Excommunication can be a frightening word. E.x.c.o.m.m.u.n.i.c.a.t.i.o.n. The reality is no less grave. We’ve all seen that arresting scene from the movie Becket, when the titular archbishop excommunicates Lord Gilbert. The ominous snuffing out of candles in the medieval liturgy evokes the spiritual darkness that those dismissed from the Church’s communion …
Dr. Peter Kreeft Videos
Dr. Peter Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and a noted Catholic apologist and philosopher. He is a convert to the Catholic Church from reformed Protestantism. He earned an A.B. degree from Calvin College, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Fordham University, followed by post-doctoral work at Yale University. He is a regular contributor to several Christian publications, is in wide demand as a speaker at conferences, and is the author of over 60 books including Making Sense Out of Suffering (Servant, 1986); Fundamentals of the Faith: Essays in Christian Apologetics (Ignatius, 1988); Catholic Christianity (Ignatius, 2001); The …
Door to Door Evangelization
Door-to-Door with the Legion of Maryby Robert H. NyssenDoor-to-door evangelization is usually considered the domain of the sects. When we hear knocks at the door, we assume sectarians cause them – Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists. We don’t think the evangelists might be Catholics, but some of them are, and many of the most effective are members of the Legion of Mary. A worldwide lay organization founded in 1921 by Frank Duff, the Legion uses time-tested methods to locate, identify, and invite into (or back to) the Church everyone from fallen-away Catholics to people uncommitted to any religion. The Legion …
The Dictator Pope
The title “Dictator Pope” is the name of a book that appeared Monday in English (after earlier publication in Italian) by a writer who has assumed a grand Renaissance pseudonym: Marcantonio Colonna (an admiral at Lepanto). He evidently could not publish under his real name, for fear of reprisals. But the case he lays out is largely convincing: that Pope Francis has carefully cultivated an image in public as the apostle of mercy, kindness, and openness; in private, he’s authoritarian, given to profanity-laced outbursts of anger, and manipulative in pursuing his agenda. This is hardly news, least of all in …
Bishops Beware
Dear Bishops, Beware James H. Toner Sunday, November 13, 2016 The American bishops will be gathering in Baltimore this week for their annual Fall conference. They will have many issues to address – and a new president of the bishops’ conference to elect (which some are suggesting may be a kind of referendum on the past three years of Francis’ papacy). But in the unlikely event that they asked me for advice about the future life of the Church in America, I might offer them something like the following. Beware of sophistry concealed as wisdom; hedonism masquerading as morality; skewed …