COLLEGIALITY AND EUCHARISTIC INTEGRITY
By EPPC Distinguished Senior Fellow George Weigel
Syndicated Column
If the Church lives from the Eucharist and yet the people of the Church don’t participate in the Eucharist as often as they should, or don’t understand what they’re celebrating and receiving when they do, then the Church suffers from a serious eucharistic deficit. Those ordained to leadership in the Church are obliged to do something about that.
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EPPC President Ryan T. Anderson and EPPC Cardinal Francis George Fellow Mary FioRito offered comments in a recent New York Times article on U.S. Bishops’ draft guidelines on the Eucharist:
Ryan T. Anderson, the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative organization in Washington, said that bishops’ taking action on a contemporary political issue was simply a matter of obedience to church teaching, regardless of partisanship.
He pointed to the example of Joseph Francis Rummel, the archbishop of New Orleans in the 1950s, who proclaimed racial segregation “morally wrong and sinful” and eventually excommunicated three prominent church members who opposed him.
Outside observers, and even many lay Catholics, don’t understand the deep sacredness of the Eucharist in church teaching and tradition, said Mary Hallan FioRito, a Catholic lawyer and commentator in Chicago.
If Ms. FioRito’s children violate the church instruction to fast for one hour before receiving the Eucharist, she tells them not to receive it. She has friends who attend Mass frequently but do not even request the Eucharist because they were married outside the church and are therefore not in “valid” marriages. Mr. Biden, she said, should know better than to try to receive communion given his position on abortion.
“For Catholics, the Eucharist is not a symbol,” she said. “It’s Christ himself.”
Click here to read the full article at the New York Times’s website.
Click here to listen to Mary FioRito’s interview on the topic on the Issues, Etc. podcast.
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SHOULD CHURCHES DISCIPLINE CHRISTIAN POLITICIANS?
By EPPC Fellow Andrew T. Walker
Carl F. Henry Institute
When Christians declare that politicians who claim the mantle of “Christian” should be held accountable by their ecclesial bodies for voting for policies that scandalously violate Scripture, natural law, and the common good, we are saying something important about the integrity and coherence of our confessional beliefs. Read More
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What should be done about Big Tech and its increasing censorship of conservative voices and speech, along with other harms its business practices pose to American society? What are the various solutions and approaches being put forward in Congress, and how should we think through the merits of them?
Join EPPC President Ryan T. Anderson and EPPC Policy Analyst Clare Morell on Tuesday, June 29, as they host EPPC’s Big Tech Symposium, where five members of Congress will present their proposed legislative solutions, followed by panels of distinguished legal scholars and experts to discuss and debate those solutions as applied to Section 230, Antitrust Law, and Common Carrier Law.
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THE SUPREME COURT HAS SHOWN IT REMAINS COMMITTED TO FREEDOM OF RELIGION – FOR NOW
By EPPC Senior Fellow Henry Olsen
The Washington Post
Many conservatives fear that woke progressivism’s march through America’s institutions will inevitably curtail religious liberty. Thursday’s unanimous Supreme Court decision in a case regarding Catholic Social Services shows that the court remains committed to the First Amendment — for now. Read More
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THE COMMUNITARIAN CASE FOR A UNIVERSAL CHILD BENEFIT
By EPPC Fellow Patrick T. Brown
Real Clear Policy
A conservative family policy should be about supporting families as the core building block of a flourishing society — and recognizing the work parents put into rearing the next generation. Read More
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WHY UNANIMITY WAS SO IMPORTANT IN THE FULTON CASE
By EPPC Senior Fellow Roger Severino
National Review Online
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EPPC Kate O’Beirne Fellow Mary Rice Hasson discussed gender identity and religious freedom on a video podcast hosted by the Catholic Diocese of Arlington. Click the image above to watch.
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AMERICA’S OLD BELIEVERS NEED TO MOVE PAST DONALD TRUMP
By EPPC Henry Grunwald Senior Fellow Lance Morrow
The Wall Street Journal
He wasn’t up to the task of preserving democracy, civic sanity, and freedom of speech and thought from progressive elites. Read More
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WATCH OUT, DONALD TRUMP. RON DESANTIS IS ON THE RISE.
By EPPC Senior Fellow Henry Olsen
The Washington Post
It’s widely assumed that the 2024 Republican presidential nomination is Donald Trump’s if he wants it. That may be, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s rapid rise calls that into question. Read More
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YES, CRITICAL RACE THEORY’S CRITICS KNOW WHAT IT IS. NEXT, WE NEED TO REPLACE IT.
By EPPC Postdoctoral Fellow Nathanael Blake
The Federalist
Law and culture almost always need some reform, but the work of racial justice begins, not with systemic critique, but with love based on the recognition that we are all children of God. Read More
(See also Mr. Blake’s piece explaining that, contrary to some of his modern critics and interpreters, J.R.R. Tolkien’s “moral vision is far more advanced than those who worship their own desires as the highest good.”)
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WHY WE OPPOSED AN ANTI-ABORTION RESOLUTION AT THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
By EPPC Fellow Andrew T. Walker et al.
Public Discourse
The resolution on abortion that was passed at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville was well-intended but woefully flawed. It offers no exception for the life of the mother, and it opposes incrementalism. Those two items are serious shortcomings that would lead to the loss of more innocent lives, not fewer. Read More
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WHY GIVEN 2021 WAS A SIGN OF HOPE FOR THE CHURCH
By EPPC Cardinal Francis George Fellow Mary Hallan FioRito
Our Sunday Visitor
In June, 130 Catholic women gathered at The Catholic University of America for four days of prayer, spiritual direction, inspiring talks, dynamic workshops and individual mentoring. The goal? To help each woman recognize the gift that she is to the Church and to her own family and community and help discern her vocation. Read More
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WILL CHRISTIAN AMERICA WITHSTAND THE PULL OF QANON?
By EPPC Senior Fellow Peter Wehner
The New York Times
None of us can fully escape the downsides and the dark sides of our communities and our culture. The question is whether those who profess to be followers of Jesus show more of a capacity than they have recently to rise above them, to be self-critical instead of simply critical of others, to shine light into our own dark corners, even to add touches of grace and empathy in harsh and angry times. Read More
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“TRUSTING THE CHURCH: A LECTURE,” BY IDA FRIEDERIKE GÖRRES
Translated by EPPC Fellow Jennifer S. Bryson
Catholic Culture Audiobooks
EPPC Fellow Jennifer S. Bryson has translated the lecture “Trusting the Church,” delivered in 1970 by Ida Friederike Görres. Read More
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LANGUAGE BARRIERS
By EPPC Fellow Stephen P. White
The Catholic Thing
If liturgy was once the universal common denominator for Catholics the world over, it no longer is. A concerted effort to strengthen a shared ecclesial life – and especially shared liturgical life – across linguistic barriers ought to be a pastoral priority. Read More
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THOUGHTS ON THE GREAT ESCAPE
By EPPC Fellow Francis X. Maier
The Catholic Thing
COVID forced illness and death, those unwelcome party-crashers, onto the menu of millions of people otherwise cocooned in the normalcy of work, sports, family, Powerball, and vacations. Read More
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FATHERS MATTER
By EPPC Policy Analyst Clare Morell
National Review Online
The protective role fathers play for their children and for the overall flourishing of our society is vital, and fathers today are facing greater challenges than ever. Read More
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In the last two decades, the number of religious “nones” has grown to 1 in 4 Americans—and roughly 4 in 10 members of the Democratic Party. What will this mean? In the latest episode of EPPC’s Faith Angle podcast, The Atlantic’s Elizabeth Bruenig and emeritus director of The Bliss Center of Applied Politics John C. Green carefully track a stunning decline in U.S. membership in a house of worship—from 70 percent in 1999 to 47 percent today—and discuss what a growing secularist commitment could mean for America’s future.
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