Priest as Therapist—The "Jackson Pollocking" of the Priesthood

Gather round, children, and Uncle Boniface will tell you a story.

A few dioceses over from me is a large diocesan Catholic high school. For years a certain Boomer priest was assigned to chaplain duty here. Fr. Boomer's days were quite busy: besides saying the daily Masses and offering confessions, he spent a lot of time doing one-on-one spiritual direction appointments with the students, helping them to work through their various problems. The students made ample use of his availability, and the priest undertook the work cheerfully, believing it to be an integral part of his chaplaincy duties.

Renewal of James Larson's "Rosary to the Interior" for Candlemas

As many readers of this blog know, I was privileged to enjoy a long and fruitful professional collaboration with the late James Larson, which continued on until his death in 2020. After his passing, I worked with his family to bring Larson's essential essays to print in the book The War Against Being and the Return to God, in which Mr. Larson argued that essential problem at the heart of Church's crisis is the rejection of a Thomistic philosophical framework.

In Thy Light We See Light

There is a beautiful passage in the Psalms which says "In thy light do we see light" (Ps. 36:9). 

Light is one of the richest metaphors in the Scriptures, possessing multiple layers of meaning. On the one hand, it is  a powerful symbol for the incomprehensible splendor of God's essence. "God is light," St. John tells us (1 John 1:5), and Paul says "God dwells in unapproachable light" (1 Tim. 6:16). "The Lord God is a sun and shield," says the Psalmist (Ps. 84:11). 

"Be Sober and Watch": Recognizing the Voice of the Evil One

There is truly an ocean of Catholic spiritual literature out there on the subject of learning to recognize the voice of God. As essential as this is, I have found it to be equally important to learn to recognize the voice of the devil.

Grace and Peace in 2026

Happy New Year everybody! As has been custom here at Unam Sanctam from time immemorial at New Years, it's time for my annual recap!

I want to extend sincere thanks to all my supporters, both those known to me and those known only to God, for 2025 was truly a tremendous year for USC and my affiliated projects. I saw growth, blessing, generosity, engagement, and support across the spectrum that made 2025 one of the best years ever for Unam Sanctam Catholicam. 

God is For Us, Not Against Us

When I was young, I was a troubled teen—to some degree, at least. I mean, I don't want to exaggerate. There were others who were vastly more troubled than I and certainly had things a lot worse. I had a stable family, middle class lifestyle, and pretty inconsequntial small town upbringing in the Midwest. Even so, I had problems: I believed a lot of nonsense, developed some pretty foul habits, struggled with depression and loneliness, put many bad substances (and worse ideas) into my body, committed misdeeds, and eventually became nihilistic. I made many poor decisions, the ramifications of which I continue to work out to this day. 

Book Review: Catherine of the Erie by Claudio Salvucci

This month I read an excellent new historical fiction work from the good folks at Arx Publishing entitled Catherine of the Erie, about the life of Catherine Gandeaktena, the Erie convert who founded the Saint-François-Xavier mission at Prairie-de-la-Magdelaine (Kentake) in Quebec in 1667. Catherine of the Erie is authored by the erudite Claudio Salvucci, a name well-known in traditional Catholic circles. Claudio has produced many excellent books and essays over the years on a rich diversity of subjects, though he is especially known for his voluminous knowledgea on the Jesuit missions of French Canada and the Catholic Native American communities they established. One of the greatest things Claudio ever produced—in concert with Tony Schiavo of Arx—was a modern reproduction of the Jesuit Relations in English. The Relations were a set of annual reports, published from 1632 to 1673, written by Jesuit missionaries in New France which detailed their missionary endeavors.

Gratitude: Showing Others the Light by Which We See Providence

"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thess. 5:18). When I first became a Christian, I found this passage so important that I wrote it down on a 3 x 5 notecard and memorized it. Its prescription is universal—it apples "in all circumstances," that is, in every time, place, and situation. If you ever find yourself wondering what you ought to be doing, "give thanks" always applies. To take it even further, St. Paul adds that this is God's will for us. How many people struggle to discern the will of God for their lives! Yet here in Scripture the Apostle tells us plainly that God always wills our gratitude. If you ever doubt what God wants you to be doing in life, at the bare minimum you know that you should be giving thanks.

The Co-Redemptive Suffering of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

This month I have been working through the classic 1957 book The Sanctifier by Luis M. Martinez, Archbishop of Mexico. The Sanctifier is one of the great modern texts on the Holy Spirit, an incredibly rich work that I recommend for anybody seeking deeper insight into the way the Holy Spirit effects our sanctification.

Dancing, Moral Panics, and Boomerism

Recently I have been working through the fascinating book Catholic Revivalism: The American Experience 1830-1900 by Jay P. Dolan (University of Notre Dame Press, 1978). Dolan's work chronicles the phenomenon of Catholic revivalist meetings in the United States throughout the 19th century. From the 1830s to the turn of the century, traveling Catholic evangelists—largely Redemptorists, Jesuits, Passionists, and later the Paulist Fathers—held large outdoor "missions" analagous to the better-known Protestant tent revivals of the Second Great Awakening. The purpose of these missions was to rekindle the faith in the small (but growing) Catholic population of America who, due to their scattered geographic distribution, often had little access to the sacraments and led anemic faith lives.

Active Participation and the Lowest Common Denominator

It has been said that the Novus Ordo represents the apotheosis of active participation as the first principle of liturgical worship over and above all other considerations, including ritual integrity or even what is fitting for divine worship. I had a harsh realization about this several years ago when I was on vacation and had to go to Mass at some random church (don't the worst liturgical stories always seem to happen when we are on vacation?)

"Vindicate Me, O God"—A Defense of the Psalms

Domine, exaudi orationem meam, et clamor meus ad te veniat.

1. Since the beginning of Christianity, the Psalter has formed the core of Christian prayer. We see this right from the New Testament; St. Paul tells the Ephesians to "address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs"; elsewhere he advises the Colossians to "admonish one another in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God." (Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16) The First Epistle of Clement, one of the earliest Christian writings outside of the New Testament, quotes the psalms upwards of fifty times, testifying to the deep integration of the psalms into the apostolic Church's worship and piety. 

Letter of Bishop Chad W. Durden—A Thought Experiment

For those prone to noticing patterns, there is a predictable sequence of events that unfolds whenever a bishop suppresses the Traditional Latin Mass in his diocese. First, the bishop makes an announcement that the Latin Mass is being suppressed. The statement, both in its content and wording, demonstrates shockingly little pastoral sensitivity to those who will be displaced. The callous disregard for the persons affected prompts an angry backlash; the bishop is subsquently lambasted in the Trad media. Anti-Trads, meanwhile, hold up Trads' predictable ire as justification of the crackdown (this is, of course, gaslighting by inverting causality, akin to beating a dog until it bites you and then arguing that the bite justified the beating). This level of delusion beggars belief. When the Latin Masses of Charlotte were suppressed, there was even someone, a relatively well-known commentator—a real special fellow—who actually argued that Charlotte's traditional Catholics should be thanking Bishop Martin for turning them out of their parishes and shuffling them off to a chapel! 

Why Filipino Catholicism Looks So Cringey: Spectacle and Substance in the Contemporary Church

We are pleased to present a guest article on Catholicism in the Philippines by a long time friend and supporter of this blog writing under the pseudonym Didacus. This essay was composed in response to the recent cringe-inducing video of Filipino seminarians dancing and singing the official Philippine "theme song" of the Synod on Synodality. In this piece, Didacus attempts to answer the question, "Why is Philippine Catholicism so cringey?" It is a deceptively simple question whose answer takes us on an in depth exploration of Philippine history, identity, and pop culture, with especial emphasis on the Philippine "variety shows," which Didacus argues are a template for understanding Catholicism in the Philippines.

Book Review: Blosser & Sullivan "Speaking in Tongues" Volume 2

Back in 2023 I reviewed Speaking in Tongues: A Critical Historical Examination by Phil Blosser and Charles Sullivan and published by Pickwick Publications. It was an excellent book and an ecumenical venture of the best kind (Blosser is Catholic and Sullivan a Protestant), tackling the Charismatic subculture within both Protestantism and Catholicism with a detailed study of how the Charismatic conception of tongues developed out of the British Irvingite movement of the 19th century, developing into modern Pentecostalism in the aftermath of the Tongues Missionary Crisis of 1906-1909.