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March 10, 2023
Black Is Beautiful
by Francis X. Maier
Public Discourse

Georges Bernanos, the great French writer, had a particular distaste for the cult of optimism, especially its American variety. The idea that things somehow, naturally, turn out for the better struck him as laughably deluded, a form of “whistling past the graveyard.” In the real world, things often don’t turn out for the better. They get worse. And the graveyard can’t be ignored away, because death is real. We all sooner or later face it, and no amount of whistling will help us sneak past it. So how a culture deals with death speaks volumes about its mental health—and its understanding of who and what a human being is.

I turned 70 four years ago. Shortly thereafter I informed my family that I’ll be very displeased, despite being dead, if the priest at my funeral wears anything but black. They weren’t surprised. In the Catholic tradition, liturgical vestments have a catechetical role. They give meaning to the moment. Green is for Ordinary Time and the virtue of hope. Red is for Pentecost, the fire of the Holy Spirit, and the blood of martyrs. White, and occasionally gold, reflect the glory of the Christmas and Easter seasons, solemnities, and the great feasts. Purple is penitential for Lent and anticipative for Advent, and the color rose—hinting at the joy to come—is used on Advent’s Gaudete and Lent’s Laetare Sundays.

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George Weigel writes in his syndicated column about the ignorance of the Second Vatican Council displayed by a new brand of ultramontanists.
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"For anyone wanting to see the cross-pressures facing institutions of higher education at the moment, the current difficulties faced by the King’s College in New York and New College in Florida provide excellent and instructive examples," writes Carl Trueman for WORLD Opinions.
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Nathanael Blake writes for The Federalist about the pathologies of American evangelicalism and the rejection of the biblical truth about marriage.
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For The Catholic Thing, Stephen White writes about how Lent can call us to proclaim the Good News to the world.
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Clare Morell appeared on a panel at the Texas Policy Summit to discuss the unique harms to children posed by the excessive use of social media, including depression, addiction, exploitation, self-harm, and suicide.
WATCH HERE
George Weigel appeared on the Sangreal podcast to discuss the state of the contemporary Church.
WATCH HERE
Adam and Eve after the Pill: REVISITED
March 15 | 5 PM Mass, 6 PM Talk, 7 PM Reception
Catholic Information Center
1501 K Street NW, Suite 175, Washington, DC xxxxxx

Celebrated author Mary Eberstadt continues her ground-breaking examination of the legacy of the sexual revolution. The book’s predecessor, Adam and Eve after the Pill (2012), dissected the revolution’s microcosmic fallout via its empirical effects on the lives of men, women, and children. This follow-on book investigates the revolution’s macrocosmic transformations in three spheres: society, politics, and Christianity. It also includes an analysis of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

With unflinching logic, Eberstadt summarizes the toll on Western society of today’s fractured homes, feral children, and social isolates. Empathetic yet precise, she connects the dots between shrinking, broken families and rising sexual confusion, seen most recently in transgenderism and related phenomena. The book also traces the dissolution of the home to signature developments in Western politics, especially the increase in acrimony, polarization, street violence, and identity politics. The result is an indictment of the turn taken by much of the world following the post-1960s embrace of contraception and the stigmatization of traditional morality.

The book’s section on the revolution’s infiltration of the churches is must-reading for anyone concerned about the fate of Western Christianity. In a moment when millions wonder whether the Catholic Church will retreat from age-old moral teachings, this book demands to be put at the center of discussion.

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