Warren H. Carroll was a fundamental figure of the late-twentieth century Catholic cultural revival. His historical works present the Church’s Christocentric view of history while utilizing the scholarly tools of a modern historian. Yet few historians, even Catholic historians working within the Catholic historiographic milieu, are familiar with the historical thought of Carroll, and even fewer have engaged his thought in their scholarship. This article seeks to rectify that deficiency by presenting Carroll’s twin historical principles, “Truth exists” and “The Incarnation happened,” as a model for Catholic historical studies.

Frances Calderón de la Barca (1804-1882) was born in Scotland but lived most of her adult life in the United States (Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.), Mexico, and Spain. Her most famous books describe the life and cultures of nineteenth-century Mexico and Spain based on her experiences there. But she was also part of the Anglo-American world and she inherited the typical Protestant prejudices of her day. Her conversion to the Catholic Church in mid-life highlights the factors that finally overcame such seemingly insurmountable cultural barriers. This article uses her books and letters to trace this important writer’s unexpected journey of faith.

A result of the violence and destruction of the First and Second World Wars was an abandonment of hope in the twentieth century. This abandonment of hope had caused an overwhelming despair which infiltrated all levels of modern society. The juxtaposition of the lives and writings of two twentieth-century writers, Stefan Zweig and W.H. Auden, helps us to understand what is at stake in the ongoing tension between hope and despair. While Zweig saw no future for modern society and eventually committed suicide, Auden, who abandoned his Christian faith in his youth, returned to it after witnessing the horrors of the 1930s and 1940s. I will attempt to show that the path followed by Auden is the path of Christian hope, and that path can still be followed by modern pilgrims who struggle to gain the upper hand over despair.

The foundation of a Catholic international relations theory, known as Moral Realism, is that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God, and thus possess an inherent dignity. In conjunction with St. Thomas Aquinas’ conclusion that man is a political animal, hierarchies are established within societies and political power is exercised under the condition that a person’s dignity will not be violated. Extrapolating this to the next level, how do societies use their power in relation to one another in the absence of governing institutions? This essay will examine the concept of “power” from a Moral Realist perspective, utilizing a level of analysis approach in order to fill in a critical void in the current international relations theory.

During his his eight-year tenure in the White House, President Barack Obama raised serious concerns by expanding presidential power with his use of actions that altered federal regulations in various policy areas, ignored or circumvented the law, and/or enacted policies that violate fundamental human rights, notably religious freedom. In the first few months of his presidency, President Trump also has used executive orders to alter existing legislation and policy. In light of these circumstances, it is important to ask: How should a Catholic (and any citizen for that matter) assess this use of the executive power? And, perhaps more importantly, in what ways should executive power be exercised? I will attempt to answer these questions from a broad perspective based on the general understanding of executive power as written in the U.S. Constitution, as well as the historical development of this power. I will also provide, based on principles of Catholic social teaching, a general assessment of the current status of executive power and some recommendations for how it should be exercised.

The purpose of this study was to develop a further understanding of what factors influence the evangelistic behavior of Catholic parishioners. A parish survey designed to generate quantitative data was administered to 444 parishioners attending a Catholic Church located in central Canada. Evangelistic behavior was measured by asking participants how often during the six months preceding their participation in the study did they invite a non-Catholic or an inactive Catholic to church. The study’s eight independent variables pertained to specific participant attitudes, beliefs and practices which relate to the Catholic Faith. Results indicate that agreement with Church teaching in the areas of abortion and sexual morality increased the likelihood of engaging in evangelistic behavior. Also, practices positively associated with evangelistic behavior were regular Mass attendance and regularly engaging in liturgical and/or devotional prayer. The findings suggest that Church leaders can implement various initiatives at the parish level that will increase the evangelistic behaviors of parishioners. More research is necessary to infer causal relationships between the study’s independent and dependent variables, as well as to ascertain the means by which personal evangelism results in church growth.

The leadership of St. John Fisher is examined using a modern five-practice leadership model. By systematically examining original texts as well as influential scholarship on the saint, we find that St. John Fisher exemplifies all five of the practices to varying degrees. Importantly, although St. John is famous for challenging worldly authority, he was an extraordinary exemplar of “Modeling the Way” and “Inspiring a Shared Vision.” In addition, we find evidence of leadership practices in Saint John Fisher that are not part of Kouzes and Posner’s five-practice model. In particular, St. John Fisher’s personal humility, ongoing repentance, active presence, and heroic courage were four notable leadership practices absent from most modern models.

This essay addresses some of the central issues, prospects, and problems that a serious Catholic scholar can be expected to deal with in teaching an Introduction to Sociology course in a secular college. The paper assumes the basic validity and utility of the secular discipline of sociology while noting certain dysfunctional empirical tendencies that are not intrinsic to this intellectual enterprise. Rather, these dysfunctional tendencies reflect the secular and progressive individual worldviews and biases of the majority of scholars who teach, write, and practice the discipline at this present moment in time and space. Examples of how the individual secular and progressive biases impact on the discipline can be found in numerous ways. Among others, they can be found in 1) the construction of concepts and definitions and in the choice of theoretical frameworks, all bringing with them distinctive, albeit usually implicit, philosophical assumptions; 2) the denial of any metaphysical dimension; 3) the degree and amount of hyper-specialization found in research; and 4) the utopian and ideological aspects part and parcel of the analysis in question. The line of analysis pursued here generally follows an earlier effort of mine dealing with similar issues, i.e., “Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments - An Exploratory Critique From a Catholic Sociological Sensibility ” (2011).

A study was conducted in Guatemala to help low income married couples who were financially unable to obtain highly sophisticated medical services. The couples enrolled in our study received instruction on basic health, nutrition, and supplementary vitamins. They were instructed to recognize the signs of fertility and the unique properties of the secretion that signal fertility which are essential for nourishment, survival, and protection of sperm, which are necessary for conception. Our study resulted in an 81.4 percent success rate among fifty-four couples with fertility problems. The average age of the fifty-four women in the study was 28.3 years old. The mean duration of couples attempting to conceive was 2.8 years. Fifty-two percent of these couples had a prior pregnancy; some, though, later had miscarriages. None of the couples had attempted treatment with assisted reproductive technology (ART).

For those paying any attention, it is evident that a crisis has been looming in respect to marriage and family life in our culture. The breakdown of marriage and family life has had a profound spiritual, economic, emotional, and social impact and it does not seem to be subsiding. This article posits grace as the means to address this breakdown, looking at the biblical scholarship on Saint Paul’s notion of grace and reflecting upon its contemporary application to marriage and family life.