I’m not a conservative, liberal, or traditional Catholic. I don’t even claim to be a good Catholic. But I’m a serious Catholic.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New American Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983)
Piling up prayers (posted
Morality and the marketplace (posted
Welcome to the end times? (posted
Mary, our life?
Driving like hell
Are we serious about right and wrong?
Dr. John Bruchalski: a serious Catholic
Is it a mortal sin?
“This [Christmas] novena is prayed for
Cate Von Dohlen at Hallow.com promoted a different
“In your prayer do not rattle on like the pagans,” Jesus said. “They think they will win a hearing by the sheer multiplication of words. Do not imitate them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him”
These Christmas novenas specifically prescribe multiplication of words: a prayer ×
“Do not rattle on.”
By Steve Dunham
Posted Oct. 9, 2023
It’s getting ever harder to be an American consumer without financially contributing to abortion and the Woke agenda (both are getting blatantly united: for example, a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Philadelphia has a banner with a rainbow and the word “Pride”).
Represented under the gay pride rainbow flag, the Woke beliefs—for example, that abortion is healthcare, that men can become women and vice-versa, that unions of any two people can be true marriage, that whites are all racists and blacks are all victims—are being promoted and funded by many companies.
“Several big-name brands and/or companies have come out publicly stating that they will fund abortion travel costs for their employees,” noted Concerned Women for America.
I don’t want to be funding abortion or the Woke agenda. But it’s hard to avoid when so many brands and retailers are putting money into it; even our local transit authority, on which we depend because we live car-free, promotes gay pride while struggling with safety, security, and reliability (I’ve noticed that when someone is devoting effort to the wrong things, often the right things are being neglected; as the writer Robert Benchley said, you can do any amount of work if it isn’t what you are supposed to be doing).
So when businesses are going Woke, what are Christians to do? “Eat whatever is sold in the market without raising any question of
One of the companies on the list of Concerned Women for America is Target. Target will pay for its employees to travel to get an abortion. Although this alienated some customers, it didn’t seem to make a huge dent in Target’s business despite the “Toss Target” campaign of Concerned Women for America. What really got consumers angry was Target’s 2023 Pride product line. Although Target has been selling gay pride products for years, its latest lineup included clothing for small children, particularly for boys to dress as girls and hide the shape of their genitals. “Target said its quarterly sales fell for the first time in six years—a result of customers’ ‘negative reaction’ to its spring ‘Pride’ clothing collection that featured ‘tuck-friendly’ swimwear and LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer]-friendly gear for infants and children” (Shannon Thaler, “Target Reports First Quarterly Sales Drop in
Alerting Christians to Woke businesses, Concerned Women for America offers a list of companies to avoid along with alternative retailers, including some “brands that are explicitly pro-life.”
However, I don’t think that the growing problem of companies funding and promoting the Woke religion is only about how they spend their (and consumers’) money. I think that the devil and the Woke movement would love for everyone to be involved in supporting evil, even if the support is indirect. And will it remain passive support? The Bible describes how “Babylon the great” will make “all the nations drink the poisoned wine of her lewdness” even as “the world’s merchants” grow “rich from her”
What if, in order to buy anything, you must stand up and say, “Abortion is healthcare”?
Maybe the mark of the Beast will be a rainbow.
By Steve Dunham
Posted Sep. 16, 2023; revised Sep. 24, 2023
“Hail, Satan!” a man shouted at the people in a Life Chain, who were standing along a highway holding pro-life signs. Was he just a kook, or the tip of the iceberg?
“The Satanic Temple, which claims to have
Many of those who endorse abortion do not consider it satanic; in fact, many call themselves Christians. But I don’t doubt that abortion pleases Satan, and the Satanic Temple wished that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had been aborted (“Satanic Temple Launches Virtual ‘Religious Medication Abortion’ Clinic”).
Abortion is all about killing, so I think that, if they get their chance, many of those who support abortion would be happy to kill those who oppose it (one passerby at an abortion clinic outside which I and others were praying said he looked forward to our deaths).
They may get their chance. A “national student survey, conducted by McLaughlin & Associates,” found that “48% are OK with the death penalty to punish those accused of hate speech” (Paul Bedard, “College Students Turn More Liberal, OK Speech Death Penalty,” Washington Examiner,
Some places already have laws against offering free help to women outside abortion clinics. “‘Sidewalk
Public prayer can also bring punishment. “Washington state high-school football coach Joseph Kennedy, who won an eight-year court battle to be able to pray at midfield after
Although the Constitution says that Congress may not make a law establishing a religion, many state and local governments are enforcing the Woke religion, which states, among other tenets, that abortion is good, that men can become women, that women can become men, that unions of any two people can be true marriage, and that whites are all racists and blacks are all victims—all beliefs, not scientific facts. Parents who disagree with the belief that people can change their gender are likely to not be informed if their child wants to be a girl instead of a boy or a boy instead of a girl; some schools will encourage and assist a child to “transition” from one sex to another and not inform the parents.
The Woke movement, the Satanic Temple, and others will not, I believe, be content to suppress public opposition. Remember
For most of my life, I have heard people saying that the end times prophesied in the Bible are upon us. They may be right. With speaking against abortion and other evils being labeled a hate crime and with an increasing number of people willing to punish hate speech with death, the world seems to be heading toward a time of tribulation for those who stay faithful to God.
[I had written, “In California, parents who do not accept the Woke dogma and do not encourage and assist a child to ‘transition’ can lose custody of the child.” The California legislature passed a bill stipulating this, but the governor vetoed it, so it did not become law.]
By Steve Dunham
Aug. 17, 2023
The prayer “Hail, Holy Queen” calls Mary, the mother of Jesus, “our life, our sweetness and our hope.”
The hymn “Salve Regina” (“Hail, Queen”) calls Mary our life.
On the Catholic Answers website, someone asked, “In the Prayer ‘Hail, Holy Queen,’ We Call Mary ‘Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope.’ Is This Proper?”
Father Vincent Serpa, Order of Preachers (that is, a Dominican priest), answered, “How often have we heard people refer to their children as their life? We are not inclined to take this literally. It doesn’t mean that their children have taken the place of God in their lives. It simply expresses how important their children are to them.
“So with Mary. She is special but not because she has any super power of her own. She is our life because she is the channel the Father chose to bring us her Son.”
So Father Serpa seemed to agree that it might be a problem to mean the prayer literally.
What about calling our children our life? It might be an exaggeration, but it might indicate misordered priorities. Jesus said, “Whoever loves father or mother, son or daughter, more than me is not worthy of me”
On the Catholic Lane website, in “Featured, Live in Christ,”
I don’t find that convincing.
On the Aleteia website, someone wrote, “When Catholics pray that Mary is ‘our life, our sweetness, and our hope,’ that proves beyond any reasonable doubt that they do indeed worship Mary. To say that Mary is your life and your sweetness and your hope is to elevate her above Jesus, because Jesus is actually the life, the sweetness, and the hope of all true Christians.”
John Martignoniis, “a nationally-known Catholic apologist and Bible scholar,” answered, “You are taking that quote about Mary being ‘our life, our sweetness, and our hope,’ from one prayer that Catholics are known to pray. This prayer is known as the ‘Hail, Holy Queen.’
“I find it curious that you would take one line, from one prayer, that not all Catholics even know, and use that one line from that one prayer to portray Catholics as elevating Mary to a place above Jesus. May I ask if you have ever bothered to read the Catechism—the official teaching of the Catholic Church—to see what it says about whether or not we consider Mary to be divine? Or have you read the documents of any Church Councils,
I noticed that Martignoniis did not answer the question; he only said that the person was wrong to reach a conclusion from the plain sense of the prayer without reading the catechism, church council documents, encyclicals, or other Church documents (to find out that “our life” really means something else, or that it’s OK to call Mary “our life”?). I have read some of those documents, and I didn’t learn that “our life” really means something else or that it’s OK to call Mary our life.
When joining in the “Hail, Holy Queen” prayer, I add one word: of. I say, “Mother of mercy, of our life, our sweetness, and our hope.” Even without that second of, you could even take the prayer to mean that Mary is the mother of those things, not that she is those things. However, Father Serpa, Father Looney,
By Steve Dunham
July 15, 2023
Maybe you need to be prayed over for deliverance from an evil spirit if you would say something like that about one of the community leaders, I was told. I had said I had been driving to a gathering of a Catholic community I belonged to, doing the speed limit on a winding, hilly road, and being tailgated most of the way. When the driver who was in a hurry finally passed me, I saw that it was one of the top leaders of the community. I said later in a small group meeting of the community that maybe the leader should consider
In the places I have lived—
Some of the other tailgaters were Catholics as well. To have someone tailgating me on the way to church and then offer me Communion—that’s messed up. When that happened, I would just not receive Communion (I couldn’t switch Communion lines: I was an usher).
I once wrote a newspaper column about the contrast between pious-sounding bumper stickers and people’s actual behavior. I thought I would get a lot of hate mail, but I got amens instead except for one person who said I was dangerous. Dangerous, demonic, antisocial—yeah, I was called all of those for obeying traffic laws.
On the contrary, I’ve heard scofflaws say, “I didn’t hurt anybody.” No? Even if they didn’t physically injure anyone, did they steal people’s safety? Did they make it harder for people to cross the street? Did they contribute to an environment where people who drive legally are punished? Actions have consequences; maybe disregarding traffic laws did hurt somebody.
The Bible not only says you must not kill. It also says you must not endanger your neighbor’s life
Where I live in Pennsylvania, it’s somewhat unusual to see a driver obey a stop sign, even when I’m crossing the street. Are those drivers endangering people? I’ve been hit by a car only once (the driver had a red light; I was crossing a street with a green light). Can the rest of the drivers excuse themselves and say they didn’t hurt anybody?
Should Catholics obey traffic laws? Or is that idea antisocial, dangerous, or demonic?
By Steve Dunham
June 12, 2023
The Catholic Church has clear teachings about right and wrong, and Catholics are often energetic and generous about doing good. My current parish in Pennsylvania and my previous parish in Virginia have numerous programs to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, counsel the doubtful, and more. These works of mercy, as the Church calls them, are what we will be judged on (Matthew
What about sin? Especially, what about the sins that much of society is promoting? Are we serious about divorce and remarriage, same-sex marriage, abortion, trying to alter children’s gender, or contraception? While the parishes I’ve attended in recent decades have generally been active in charity, the sins that so much of society is calling good or at least necessary have gotten little mention, except for some talk of abortion. Outside church, Catholics do hear about them: we continually hear that divorce and remarriage are not wrong, that same-sex marriage is natural and a right, that abortion is necessary and a right, and that gender-confused children should receive permanent, mutilating surgery without parental consent. I don’t hear much about contraception any more, inside church or outside.
Jesus clearly taught that to divorce your spouse and marry another is adultery, yet said, “Not everyone can accept this
I’m afraid that many Catholics don’t even consider whether they should be celebrating marriage after divorce, or celebrating same-sex marriage, or accepting abortion as someone else’s personal choice, or acquiescing in schools’ and governments’ demands that gender-confused children be given permanent, mutilating surgery. What about sex outside marriage; what about contraception? If they do think about them, do they consider these things important?
Yes, it can alienate people to preach about these things. Also, the Church has a credibility problem. Decades of abuse by some priests destroyed a lot of people’s trust and impaired the trust of many more. A lot of people have left the Church because of the scandal. Others, excused from attending Mass during the pandemic, have not returned.
Maybe some of the clergy are afraid of driving away more people by preaching unpopular morals. Yet a quiet truce with the world is not likely to produce devoted followers.
Sometimes it’s not even a truce, it’s surrender. “By and large,” Ontario, Canada, Catholic schools have bowed to “transgender ideology and are allowing biological males into” girls’ “washrooms and … actively persecuting any faithful Catholic who speaks out against it,” said Jack Fonseca, director of political operations for Campaign Life Coalition, according to Susan Klemond (“Why Was a Canadian Student Expelled From Catholic School for Opposing Transgender Bathroom Policy?” National Catholic Register,
However, the Church clearly states the truth. Three examples:
“‘Every sexual act outside of marriage is a sin,’ the Pope wrote to Jesuit Father James Martin,” according to the Catholic News Service (Hannah Brockhaus, “Pope Francis Clarifies Comments on Sin and Homosexuality,”
“A person who identifies as transgender may experience troubling feelings, confusion, or a mistaken belief that he or she is or can ‘become’ someone different. The Church does not teach that people who experience gender dysphoria or confusion are immoral or bad. At the same time, a person who deliberately rejects his or her given identity or the sexed body and seeks harmful medical or surgical interventions is pursuing a path that is objectively wrong and harmful on many
“Every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life” (Pope
These teachings are unpopular. “The world” hates me, said Jesus, “because of the evidence I bring against it/ that what it does is evil”
Love God, love your neighbor, love one another. And live differently. Do not accept or approve the sins that much of society is promoting. That’s a lifelong, serious challenge.
By Steve Dunham
May 14, 2023
Dr. John Bruchalski is the founder of Tepeyac, a pro-life obstetrics and gynecological practice. Its mission is “to provide excellent medical care, to practice in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church, and to see the poor every day.” It is funded especially by the associated nonprofit Divine Mercy Care, which advances “pro-life healthcare through programs that serve those in need,” and it educates and inspires “caregivers and medical professionals … to ensure that all women have access to the life-affirming care they deserve.” Divine Mercy Care helped create the Pro-Women’s Healthcare Centers
However, Dr. Bruchalski’s medical practice was once very different. He used to think that, in time, all people “would recognize that abortion, contraception, and sexual liberation were necessary for women to flourish,” he told Imprint magazine (Winter 2022, published by the Sisters of Life), for which
“I learned to do first-, second-, and third-trimester
“… during this time that I was doing
A few years later, I met him. I had a temporary job, little money, no health insurance, and a pregnant wife. It wasn’t a crisis pregnancy, but I knew some people at a crisis pregnancy center and told them that at five months pregnant, my wife hadn’t yet had prenatal care during this pregnancy because we were really short on money. They put me in touch with Dr. Bruchalski, and from him and Tepeyac we received prenatal care, delivery, and hospitalization at no charge. That’s mercy—and serious Catholicism.
By Steve Dunham
April 15, 2023
Is racism a mortal sin? What about adultery? Abortion?
“Racism is a mortal sin,” wrote Archbishop Nelson Perez of Philadelphia (“Letter from Archbishop Pérez to the Saint Hubert High School Community in the Wake of Racial Tension,”
“Adultery is a mortal sin,” wrote Father William Saunders (“Church Weddings: Obligation to Faith or Family?” Catholic Culture, 2005).
“We implore Your mercy upon those who endanger their very souls by taking innocent human life,” wrote Bishop George Lynch in the Interfaith Light for Life Prayer (circa 1989). He didn’t say that abortionists necessarily damn themselves by taking innocent human life, only that they are committing a serious sin and in danger of damnation.
Racism, adultery, and abortion are all serious matters. But “Catholic morality not only takes into consideration the matter, but also evaluates freedom and intention; and this, for every kind of sin,” said Pope Francis (quoted in “Pope Francis Clarifies Comments on Sin and Homosexuality” by Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency,
Also, the Church defines failing to meet the holy day obligation as a serious matter. Because holy days themselves, unlike the commandment to keep the Lord’s day holy, could involve serious obligations or not, depending on which holy days the Church chooses for obligatory status, I fear that to have missing Mass on a holy day of obligation be a potential mortal sin (if full knowledge and consent are present) detracts from other serious matters such as abortion or divorce and remarriage.* Some Catholics might conclude that divorce and remarriage, being in the same category as missing Mass on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, is not a big sin and maybe sinful only because of a Church rule that could change.
Classifying sins as serious only if they are objectively morally wrong, and not based on a changeable rule, would, I think, help make it clear which things are serious matters. Also, people could be more careful before using the words mortal sin and acknowledge that not only a serious matter but also full knowledge and consent of the will are required for a sin to be mortal.
It’s not just a matter of words; it’s about salvation and damnation.
*This is borrowed from a letter I had published in the Arlington (Virginia) Catholic Herald in December 2010.
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