"Can Catholicism Be Passed On Without Catholic Culture?" By David G. Bonagura, Jr. at Catholic World Report
May 25, 2023
Is there any soil to cultivate today so at least some Catholic seeds may survive and bear fruit? I believe that a triangular-shaped garden fertilized with three nutrients—the family, the parish, and the Catholic school—can offer enough fertile soil for a counterculture to develop. All three, with their unique emphases, can provide the cultural elements necessary to support faith growing within parents and their children.
Can Catholicism Be Passed On Without Catholic Culture? By David G. Bonagura, Jr. at Catholic World Report. Is there any soil to cultivate today so at least some Catholic seeds may survive and bear fruit? I believe that a triangular-shaped garden fertilized with three nutrients—the family, the parish, and the Catholic school—can offer enough fertile soil for a counterculture to develop. All three, with their unique emphases, can provide the cultural elements necessary to support faith growing within parents and their children. Read
The Critical Need for Philosophy by Donald DeMarco at National Catholic Register. The Church makes it clear that philosophy is neither theology nor is it something that the Church invented for the purpose of imposing it on its members. As the great Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain has remarked, “philosophy ... is founded on evidence alone [and] lives on reason alone.” Therefore, philosophy is for everyone. It is not sectarian nor is it imposed on anyone. Read
More States Should Follow the Science on Reading by Washington Examiner. New York City last week became the latest school district to mandate the use of phonics in elementary school reading programs, joining 31 states and the District of Columbia in a national movement toward teaching that works. For too long, children's learning and ultimate literacy have been damaged by academics and teachers unions pushing trendy reading methods. The data are in. Phonics works best. It is time all states put it back in classrooms. Read
Colorado's Marxist Teachers Condemn Capitalism, But Won't Say What Should Replace It by Mike Gonzalez at Washington Examiner. The manifesto [condemning capitalism] was approved by the state’s largest teachers union, the Colorado Education Association (CEA), which bills itself as the “voice of 39,000 educators” and is thus not a small outfit. It read as follows: “…. Capitalism is in opposition to fully addressing systemic racism (the school to prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality, and income inequality.” Read
Students Criticize Their Catholic University’s Pro-Transgender Housing Policy by Susan Klemond at National Catholic Register. Responding to an undercover video that revealed their Catholic university gives students who identify as transgender privileges in room assignments by covertly placing them in campus housing that doesn’t correspond to their biological sex, University of St. Thomas (UST) students said they find the policy unfair, potentially a risk to women and not in line with the university’s Catholic identity. Read
Massachusetts Panel Says Child-Abuse Laws Should Protect Transgender Kids From Parents by Tyler Arnold at National Catholic Register. A Massachusetts government agency is asking lawmakers to review the state’s child-abuse laws to ensure they apply to parents who won’t let their children transition from one gender to another…. “We should be concerned when state officials force their hand on parents in how they raise their own children,” Alliance Defending Freedom Director of the Center for Parental Rights Kate Anderson told CNA. Read
Subverting the Supreme Court by Andrea M. Picciotti-Bayer at National Catholic Register. The Supreme Court’s current term will soon come to an end. We’re likely to see victories for a Christian wedding-website designer with traditional views on marriage and a Sabbatarian Christian mailman who cannot work on Sundays. Progressive politicians and their media allies are getting ready to throw a fit. Their ritualized outrage every time the Court defends religious freedom has become so predictable that it’s tempting to ignore it. After all, the Court has the final say, doesn’t it? Not so fast. Read
School Choice Could Boost Birthrate Among Married Couples, Report Finds by Jeremiah Poff at Washington Examiner. The report… presents the case that school choice programs… would reduce the “opportunity costs” associated with raising children…. School choice assists in overcoming these costs… by providing families with a means to provide their children with a private school education through their own taxpayer funds, which they already provide to the public school system, which may be teaching concepts that do not align with a family's values. "Research indicates that children attending private schools, especially religious schools, are more likely to get married as adults, and more likely to stay married," the report reads. "The benefits of education choice accrue to some of the most important aspects of families’ lives and could increase the marital birth rate." Read
The Left's Disdain for Parents is Finally Out in the Open by Kaylee McGhee White at Washington Examiner. It’s not just that Democrats lack respect for parents or their rights as the primary caretakers and educators of their children. The problem is that, in many cases, leftists and their allies in the public education system have outright disdain for parents. Consider this response from New Hampshire state Rep. Tommy Hoyt to an email from a constituent asking him to support a parental rights bill in the state legislature…. “Do you know why children’s results tanked during COVID? Their parents were incompetent teachers. Do your children a favor, let the teachers teach, and shut up. You’re clearly no professional.” Read
DeSantis Team Highlights How He Battled the Media over Parental Rights by Ryan King at Washington Examiner. Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) political team is touting how he battled against the media for parental rights as he inches closer to a 2024 decision…. The governor also recently signed the Let Kids Be Kids bill to protect "Florida’s children from permanent mutilating surgical procedures, gender identity politics in schools, and attending sexually explicit adult performances." "We’re not doing the pronoun Olympics in Florida. It’s not happening here," DeSantis was shown saying in the new spot. Read
Throwback Thursday
Saving Catholic Schools by David G. Bonagura, Jr. at The Catholic Thing on January 30, 2021. Breaking with public academic standards will require courage on the part of Catholic schools, which too often fear crossing swords with their public-school counterparts lest they lose the paltry government money, meted through local public school districts, that they receive annually. But it should be painfully obvious by now that begging for a few crumbs from Caesar is not enough to keep schools open. Only a rising enrollment will do that. Enrollment will rise only when solid academic curricula, from diagraming sentences to traditional computation, make the pursuit of truth their goal – and all truth points to God. Which returns us to the deeper purpose of Catholic education: leading all souls to Heaven. Read