My Blog
Were the Crusades Just Wars?
This post is the second in a series about the most prevalent modern myths about the Crusades and how to refute them. Some people find distasteful the idea that the pope exhorted and spiritually incentivized Catholic warriors to fight in the Crusades. They say the...
Why the Crusades Were “Glorious”
This post is the first in a series about the most prevalent modern myths about the Crusades and how to refute them. The Crusades are one of the most misunderstood topics in Church history. Movies and TV present as established fact an outdated anti-Catholic narrative...
The Saintly Crusader King
Today is the feast of St. Louis IX, king of France. Louis’s insistence on taking the cross [in December 1244] and journeying to the Holy Land was an outgrowth of his deep faith and love for Christ. He yearned to see Jerusalem under Christian control once more. His...
The Antipope Who Became a Saint
Today the Church celebrates the memorial of Sts. Hippolytus (170-235) and Pontian (r. 230-235)—a most interesting pair of early Christian men who were at first enemies but now share eternal glory. In its first several centuries, the Church dealt with crises both...
Conquest, Desecration, and Phony History
Worldwide attention is focused on the crisis in Iraq as Sunni Muslim militant forces from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) sweep through the region killing and rampaging unimpeded. A recent Washington Post article highlighted ISIS’s destruction of the...
Liberating Jerusalem – The Success of the First Crusade
Today marks the 915th anniversary of the liberation of the Holy City of Jerusalem by the warriors of Christendom on the First Crusade. Those who entered the city in that summer of 1099 had endured three years of battle, starvation, and disease in order to complete...
St. Boniface and the Christmas Tree
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Boniface (680–754), known in Church history as the Apostle to the Germans. Boniface is regarded as “probably the greatest missionary since St. Paul” for his extensive travels and successful evangelization efforts in modern-day...
How St. Catherine Brought the Pope Back to Rome
In the pantheon of great women in Church history, pride of place should be accorded the young mystic from Siena, St. Catherine, whose feast we celebrate today. Born in 1347 to a humble wool-dyer, Catherine became one the most influential persons of fourteenth-century...
The Real Story of the Fourth Crusade
810 years ago this week, on April 13, 1204, an unthinkable act occurred: Christian armies sacked Constantinople, in what became known as the Fourth Crusade. The Crusades are among the most misunderstood events in Catholic history, and the Fourth Crusade is frequently...
Mary, A Queen of Another Kind
What could have been? It is likely this question came to the mind of the forty-four-year-old Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots and the rightful queen of England, on the morning of February 8, 1587, as she awaited her execution at the hands of English Protestants. Her tragic story is not well known (many confuse her with “Bloody Mary” or Mary Tudor, who reigned as Queen of England from 1553-1558), but that might change with a recently released movie starring Saoirse Ronan as Mary and Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I.
Leo and Luther – The Real Story of the Pope and the Heretic
THE MYTH: Martin Luther was a simple reformer who desired to rid the Church of corruption and abuses, but when he challenged the pope on the issue of indulgences he was unjustly condemned, which forced him to break from the Church.
THE REAL STORY: This narrative is false. Luther was an unrepentant heretic whose teachings caused irreparable harm to the Catholic Church and Western civilization. When Pope Leo X (r. 1513-1521) recognized the danger of Luther’s teachings he strenuously and patiently urged his repentance.
Giovanni de’ Medici came from one of the most powerful families in Italy.
In Defense of the Crusader Mascot
Controversy concerning sports mascots has been raging in our culture for the past several decades. Many groups have found certain mascots offensive due to pejorative racial or ethnic epithets, such as the National Football League’s Washington Redskins. The clamor to change these mascots to something more palatable to modern sensibilities has been growing.
This campaign has taken aim not only at professional sports franchises but also colleges and universities.
Remember Pearl Harbor: The Sacrifice of Fr. Al Schmitt
Fr. Aloysius Schmitt (Lieutenant, Junior Grade), known affectionately as “Father Al,” had just finished celebrating 7 a.m. Mass aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) at Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, when Japanese aircraft began their attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet. A member of the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps for only two years, the thirty-two-year-old priest had been assigned to minister to the spiritual needs of the sailors on the Oklahoma for less than year. Despite the short time on board, he had endeared himself to the men and was known for his approachability, sense of humor, and willingness to serve them.
The Real Story of the Children’s Crusade
This post is the fifth in a series about the most prevalent modern myths about the Crusades and how to refute them.
Pick up most books on the Middle Ages geared toward elementary-school students and you will more than likely find an article on the so-called “Children’s Crusade,” complete with pictures of boys and girls running away from home to fight Muslims in the Holy Land. The accompanying narrative cites this episode as the perfect example of what was wrong with the medieval period and the role of the Catholic Church in that age. It was the evil and corrupt Church, the narrative goes, that encouraged innocent children to throw away their lives by participating in the Crusades for the opportunity to gain religious benefits. Since medieval people were uneducated, superstitious, and trusting of the Church, they gladly left home and families at the call of the pope. The implication is that the tragedy of the so-called “Children’s Crusade” would not have occurred absent the influence of the Catholic Church.
The “Honey-Sweet” Doctor
Today marks the 862nd anniversary of the death of one of the most important and influential saints in the history of the Church, St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153). This great saint was the third son of seven children (six boys and one girl) born to a noble family near Dijon in the Burgundy region of France. Bernard was brilliant and handsome, although his severe ascetic practices left him frail and in ill health for most of his adult life. Bernard loved the Church and had a special and intense reverence for the Blessed Mother that had been inculcated by his mother during his childhood. During his lifetime he was known as an exceptional preacher and inspirational speaker.
The Massacre of Jerusalem
This post is the fourth in a series about the most prevalent modern myths about the Crusades and how to refute them.
This month we remember the 916th anniversary of the liberation of the Holy City of Jerusalem by the First Crusaders (July 15, 1099). News of the success of the First Crusade was enthusiastically welcomed by the inhabitants of Christendom. Unfortunately, Bl. Pope Urban II, who inaugurated the Crusading movement and centered its focus on Jerusalem, died before the news reached Rome.