“Politics & Religion I: The American Problem”

“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“I am the Chosen One.” ~ Donald J. Trump

Long before the 2024 presidential election, the Republican Party, for better or worse, earned the moniker, “the Party of Faith” for its strong affiliation with Christianity and its adoption of certain Christian moral teachings [1]. Conversely, the Democratic Party has been labeled “the Party of Secularity” for its emphasis on inclusivity and adoption of Christian social justice [2] [3]. This has caused many Americans (and perhaps even the whole world) to ask: how does Christian thought relate to American politics? 

Every religiously inclined person has the right to be politically active. The Supreme Court has repeatedly guaranteed religious institutions and their members the constitutional right of advocating for or against any legal position contrary to their faith [4]. Ideally, the job of the politician, particularly if he is religious, is to safe-guard rather than weaponise these positions. Politicians typically do whatever will advance their political careers, whether that preserves or harms the inviolable position that Christian thought has in this nation. This renders Christian thought unintelligible in contemporary political dialogue.

It would be foolhardy to say that the United States was not founded as an inherently Christian nation, whose laws are influenced by Judeo-Christian thought [5]. This is self-evident by the emblem of our Declaration of Independence, which acknowledges the Laws of Nature and the inalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness as endowed with by our Creator [6]. Our Founding Fathers understood this in terms of Judeo-Christianity and embedded the acceptance of a natural moral law in the nation’s social fabric. It was their committed belief that this was necessary for the proper formation of the American citizen and for the full realization of the American Dream [7]. 

The inalienable rights of mankind are not exclusionary to the Jew or Christian: they are the rights of all people. Those religiously disaffiliated and of different religions are full members of the American citizenry. By its inherent nature, Christianity does not force itself upon anyone. In this respect and in recognising that the government must be a secular institution to serve the needs of all, the Founders affirmed the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, which guarantees there to be no established religion and the free exercise of all [8]. 

Christianity is not a monolith. Because of our country's unique history and its original settlers, Protestant Christianity is the dominant sect. Protestantism consists of various Christian denominations that have varying scriptural interpretations. With this interpretational multitude can and does come numerous religious justifications for any political decision. Catholicism, a Christian minority in America, relies on the Church’s innate hierarchical structure for guidance. Because of this unified governing authority, American Protestants were once frightened that American Catholics would request and accept political instructions given by the bishops [9]. 

Despite these historical, internal divides, the overall decline in Christianity nationwide and the rise in both the religiously disaffiliated and other religions has led to a conglomeration of traditionalist Christians on the Republican side and of progressive Christians on the Democrat side [10].

The Republican Party has wrapped itself in the messianic-mystique of Christianity and has taken up the clarion-call of Christian morality. Christian morality, because it is socially conservative by nature, cannot help but be controversial in an increasingly secular age. Since the rise of the Moral Majority in the Reagan Era, contemporary conservative policies of limited government, free markets, and peace through strength have found themselves increasingly linked with the Christian identity of the Party [11] [12]. Two forms of conservative thought are identifiably radical: Christian nationalism and Catholic integralism. Much is heard of Christian nationalism and its dominant strand of white Christian nationalism. It uses scriptural interpretations to weaponize personal fears and prejudices and therefore justify the exclusion and discrimination of others based on their ethnicity and religion [13]. What matters here is what sect of Christianity you belong in and if you meet the necessary tribal identifiers. 

Until recently, not much was heard of Catholic Integralism. It accepts the teaching that the Catholic Faith is the only true Faith and that the political authority of the State is ordered to the common good of human life [14]. However, Integralists misinterpret and distort the Catholic Church’s promotion of religious liberties by encouraging a Church-State union that promotes the dominance of Catholic Christianity [15]. Integralism has the potential of pitting the Faith in violent opposition against other denominations and religions. 

On the other hand, the Democratic Party has ostensibly taken up the banner of Christian social justice. If it sounds contradictory for a secular, left-wing party to embrace any form Christian teachings, it is not. In fact, Christian social justice can easily be viewed outside of its divine message to be a type of radical secular social movement. The Progressive Movement heavily aligns the American liberal views of strengthening democracy, protecting freedoms, and advancing societal equity with Christianity [16] [17]. The greater expansion of LGBTQ+ and women's reproductive rights are framed in the context of reforming the negative identity portrayed by mainstream Christianity. The claim is made that the current restrictions on these rights hold no biblical or spiritual grounds and are, subsequently, social impositions [18]. Theology of Liberation goes a step further by realigning Christianity with socialist and communist doctrines: the world is placed in terms of a class struggle, where the workers must engage and win in a violent struggle against the owners and their allies [19]. What is interesting, though, is that there exist Democratic voting blocks that are socially conservative yet politically left-leaning. A prime example is the African-American community. Despite being a major Democrat voting block for reasons of race and the Party’s promise of bringing them economic and social prosperity, many African-Americans hold highly conservative views on Christian morality [20]. 
These are rough categorizations; but they capture, more or less, the trend of partisan extremism. I say all this as a conservative who supports certain Republican policies. But I am also a Christian—a Roman Catholic—who is not pleased with the distortion of Christianity for political purposes. A person’s Faith is meant to be the linchpin of their way of life. But when politicians narrow in on certain Christian positions that vaguely align with their agenda, they implicitly make Christianity contingent to their political affiliation. Not only does this make Christianity appear partisan, but it also aids in creating a false image of Christianity to both believers and non-believers, irrespective of their political affiliation. This can either extremise, or serve as a driving force for religious disaffiliation. How can the everyday American look at politics and religion as anything but a dismal mess?

End Notes:

[1] Campbell, David E. 2020. “The Perils of Politicized Religion.” Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 149, no. 3 (Summer): pg. 87-104.

[2] Ibid. 

[3] Ross, Lee D., Yphtach Lelkes, and Alexandra G. Russell. “How Christians Reconcile Their Personal Political Views and the Teachings of Their Faith: Projection as a Means of Dissonance Reduction.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109, no. 10 (2012): 3616–3622. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1117557109

[4] Walz v. Tax Comm'n of City of New York, 397 U.S. 664 (1970)

[5] The Roman Catholic Bishops of the United States, “‘The Christian in Action’: Statement by Catholic Bishops Attacking Secularism as an Evil,” New York Times, November 20, 1948, 63. https://www.nytimes.com/1948/11/21/archives/no-pockets-in-a-shroud-by-horace-mccoy-167-pp-paper-covers-new-york.html.

[6] The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription, National Archives, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, July 4, 1776, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript.

[7] An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North‑West of the River Ohio, National Archives, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, July 13, 1787, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/northwest-ordinance.

[8] The Bill of Rights: A Transcription, National Archives, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, December 15, 1791, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript.

[9] National Public Reporter. “Transcript: JFK’s Speech on His Religion.” NPR, September 12, 1960. https://www.npr.org/2007/12/05/16920600/transcript-jfks-speech-on-his-religion.

[10] Becka A. Alper et al., “Who Are ‘Spiritual but Not Religious’ Americans?”, Pew Research Center, December 7, 2023, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/12/07/who-are-spiritual-but-not-religious-americans/

[11] Johnson, James M. “7 Core Principles of Conservatism.” U.S. Congressman Mike Johnson, 2018. https://mikejohnson.house.gov/7-core-principles-of-conservatism/.

[12] Applebome, Peter. 2007. “Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority Founder, Dies at 73.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/obituaries/16falwell.html.

[13] Maxwell, Angie, and Todd G. Shields. 2019. The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics. N.p.: Oxford University Press.

[14] Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), promulgated November 21, 1964, Vatican, no. 14, https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html

[15] Waldstein O.Cist, Edmund. “What Is Integralism Today?” Church Life Journal, October 31, 2018. https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/what-is-integralism-today/.

[16] Dias, Elizabeth. 2021. “In Biden's Catholic Faith, an Ascendant Liberal Christianity (Published 2021).” The New York Times, January 23, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/23/us/biden-catholic-christian.html.

[17] 2024 Democratic Party Platform, Democratic National Committee, July 2025, https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2024-Democratic-Party-Platform.pdf

[18] Bethel Congregational United Church of Christ. “What Is Progressive Christianity?” Bethel UCC, 2026. https://www.bethelbeaverton.org/progressive-christianity.

[19] The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “Instructions on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of Liberation’” Vatican, August 6, 1984. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19840806_theology-liberation_en.html
[20] Shelton, Jason E. “The Black Church and the 2024 Presidential Election.” Brookings, February 15, 2024. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-black-church-and-the-2024-presidential-election/.

On Nick Fuentes and the Republican “Civil War”

Alt-right podcaster Nick Fuentes , host of his eponymous show America First is the leader of the “Groyper” movement, which consists largely of young, white, Christian men who believe that they have been wronged by the world, by the government, by women, by ethnic minorities, by Jewish people, and by many others. 

In a recent conversation I had with a well-meaning friend, I learned just how far the rot of Nick Fuentes’ ideology has penetrated young men. Holocaust denial, a tenet of the Groyper worldview, has become so commonplace, especially among young men, that it is now somewhat normal to believe that less than 300,000 Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. And to be clear, claiming that 270,000 Jews were murdered, as opposed to the 6 million number that has been agreed upon by historians, scholars, and survivors, is to deny the sheer atrocity of the Holocaust and what it did to the Jewish people. There were approximately 9.5 million Jews living in Europe before World War II [1].  After the war, that number was less than 3.8 million [2]. If only 270,000 Jews died in the Holocaust, where did the rest of the over 5 million of them go? 

The 6 million figure is supported by extensive evidence, including: Nazi documentation, testimonies and records from the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials, research from the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, camp records, mass grave discoveries, and analyses of pre-war populations, emigration data, and post-war survivor counts. Fuentes himself recently admitted on Piers Morgan’s show that he believes the commonly accepted figure, stating when asked, “I’m thinking, maybe 7 million. What’s the number, 7, 6 million? Something like that.” He later added, “It could even be higher. It’s at least 6 million. It could be 100 times that.” While that may be what he believes, in the same 2-hour interview, Fuentes proceeded to describe holocaust education as “propaganda” and a “political narrative” used to target Christianity. It is impossible to deny that that kind of rhetoric, the kind that actively pits Jews against Christians, leads to widespread Holocaust denial, even if Fuentes himself doesn’t actively deny it. 

And that is the problem with the rhetoric of Nick Fuentes. It is impossible to ascertain what he actually believes, but by nature of his being willing to say anything to get clicks, he is recruiting predominantly young, white, Christian men into a movement that is either predicated on Fuentes lying to his audience or his actually being unabashedly hateful and ignorant. Either way, it is my opinion that we don’t owe Nick Fuentes or those like him the grace of discerning whether or not each individual thing they say is a farce or not. It is far too easy for people to hide behind the guise of comedy in order to say things that they wouldn’t have the gall to say otherwise, and Fuentes is not automatically washed of his sins because he laughs after he says something harmful. 

Fuentes can say in a moment of personal clarity on Piers Morgan’s show, “He [A reporter at The Free Press] is right about the two personas, and I think that everybody understands this on some level. On my show I make jokes and I use rhetoric and I’m hyperbolic, because for a long time I had an audience that was small on these like dissident platforms.” But then proceeds to say that he stands by his statement that, “I want white kids, and I don’t want my white kids bringing home black people to marry. It’s racial for me. And call me racist, ‘oh very Christan of you’, I don’t give a fuck.” Someone who is willing to admit to being a racist on live TV certainly has audacity, but that audacity does not make him worth listening to.

For someone who claims that his Catholic faith is central to his life, Fuentes is quick to announce that he thinks only a “liberal ideologue” would believe that human beings are part of a brotherhood by nature of our being created in the image of God with the purpose of serving Him and knowing Him better. Instead, on Piers Morgan’s show, Fuentes said, “And I’m not a liberal ideologue that says that over time and with enough education we’re all going to see this great brotherhood where we’re colorblind and everybody’s the same.” And of course, he is technically correct that every person is unique, created to be who they are and no one else. However, from the book of Genesis we Christians get perhaps one of the most quoted lines of all time, where it is revealed that, “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God, he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). All of mankind is created in the image of God, and in the eyes of God everyone shares the same dignity, the same immortal soul, and the same relation to the divine. In The Epistle of Paul, the Apostle to the Colossians, Saint Paul says, “[b]ut now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths” (Colossians 3:8). As professed Christians, we are directed not to expend energy being hateful and divisive, but rather we are called to put that all aside and step into the light where Christ is all and in all. Stating that, “Jews are running society, women need to shut the fuck up, blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part, and we would live in paradise! It’s that simple,” seems to violate that commandment. To be clear, I am not in the business of revealing private sins or attempting to say that I know what is in someone’s heart. All I know is what I can see, and as a Christian I must rebuke those that misuse the Word or The Lord’s message. 

When asked about why he wouldn’t debate Fuentes, the late, conservative podcaster and organizer, Charlie Kirk, said, “I personally do not give a platform to bad faith actors… They can keep on yelling at how successful we are and our big events and well over a thousand employees, but there’s a lot of jealousy out there. We build, they complain. We succeed, we win, they blame the Jews.” And that is almost a perfect summation of how Fuentes and his devotees see the world. Everything is a conspiracy, nothing can be trusted, and many of the world’s problems can be attributed to a group whom Fuentes refers to as “perfidious Jews.” The issue with conspiracy theories is that they live in the dark. That is what Kirk was referring to when he called Fuentes a “bad faith” actor. Fuentes’s theories thrive on the absence of information because that absence is a feature, not a bug. Without any clear facts, conspiracy theorists, like Fuentes, can claim that crucial details are being systematically hidden by layers and layers of agencies and individuals, like the CIA, MI6, or very commonly, Mossad. It is an easy way to never be proven wrong, because Fuentes can always revert to Cartesian doubt, claiming that every layer of any given system or government has been corrupted by “the conspiracy” and we will therefore never know that he was right all along because that information is purposefully hidden from us. All major Conservative victories are subject to this unending scrutiny from Fuentes and company, including Kirk's own Turning Point USA. which has been extremely influential in the marked rise of conservatism among young Americans, yet continues to draw ire from commentators like Candace Owens and Fuentes.

During his speech at TPUSA’s 2025 AmericaFest in Arizona, conservative political commentator, and Daily Wire co-founder, Ben Shapiro made pointed attacks against many figures on the right, including Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Fuentes himself. Shapiro opened his speech by saying, “The conservative movement is also in danger from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle, but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty, who offer nothing but bile and despair, who seek to undermine fundamental principles of conservatism by championing enervation and grievance.” As Shapiro pointed out, many major voices on the right are all too afraid to call out and disavow the rhetoric of people like Nick Fuentes out of a misguided notion that disallowing anyone from the movement amounts to cancel culture and censorship. There is a clear difference between the cancel culture that was promulgated by the left for multiple decades, and drawing a calculated moral line of who is “on our side” and who is not. As Shapiro went on to say, “Politics is about principle, and if you are willing to sacrifice basic truth and simple principle in favor of emotional solidarity, you have betrayed your fundamental duty to the American people.” Someone who says regularly on their show, as Fuentes does, that, “Hitler was awesome. Hitler was right”, does not share the principles that are the backbone of conservatism. Showing emotional solidarity with such a person betrays a deeper moral obligation – one that supersedes the desire to keep the coalition together. The coalition cannot survive if it rots from the inside out. As Shapiro put it, “We must also be honest about what people say and do, regardless of what that means coalitionally.” 

The question of whether voices in the conservative movement are a net good is a question of if they are conducting themselves with integrity and how they treat those who share their space. When the radicals are at the gates, and those radicals take the shape of hatred filled race mongers, it is the mark of a failing coalition to let them in. To be a conservative means having respect for both natural truth and biblical norms, and putting aside grievance politics in favor of moral decency. If we must accept the rhetoric of people like Nick Fuentes as part of the movement in order to win, then this is a movement that has abandoned its principles and no longer deserves to win or call itself conservative. 

End Notes:

[1] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2023. “Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. September 26, 2023. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/documenting-numbers-of-victims-of-the-holocaust-and-nazi-persecution.

[2]  United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2019. “Remaining Jewish Population of Europe in 1945.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. 2019. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/remaining-jewish-population-of-europe-in-1945.

Venerable Pius XII 150 Years After His Birth

This March 2nd marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Venerable Pius XII. Pope Pius XII was born Eugenio Pacelli in 1876. When he grew up he would go on to become Cardinal Pacelli and hold the position of Cardinal Secretary of State of the Vatican until he was elected Pope in 1939. On his 63rd birthday, he took on the name Pius XII. Pius XII was the first Cardinal Secretary of State to be elected Pope since 1667. He went on to reign for nineteen years, serving as the pope throughout the entirety of the Second World War. His actions during that time period would go on to define his papacy in the eyes of many. However, he also fell victim to many vicious lies about and surrounding his wartime conduct.

One of the more controversial aspects of Pope Pius XII’s papacy was how he responded to Nazism and the holocaust. Pius XII’s supposed silence and inaction have unfairly led to the moniker of “Hitler’s Pope.” However, as history will show, that name is false and far from the truth. Both before and during his tenure as pope, Pius XII undertook numerous efforts to fight Nazism. During his time as Cardinal Secretary of State, Pius XII played a key role in drafting the anti-Nazi Papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge. This encyclical was then smuggled into Nazi Germany and read from every Catholic pulpit on Palm Sunday in 1937. As pope, his actions saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust [1]. Under Pope Pius XII’s orders, churches and monasteries sheltered thousands of Jewish people; he even provided refuge in the Vatican and in his summer residence. The pope also undertook great diplomatic efforts within the Vatican, issuing thousands of false baptismal certificates and travel documents to help Jews escape Nazi occupied territory. Pius XII placed significant diplomatic pressure on Hungary, preventing the deportation of around 24,000 Jews from the country [2]. These efforts by Pope Pius XII did not go unnoticed by the Jewish community. Notably, the Chief Rabbi of Rome during the Second World War, who, in part due to the pope’s efforts, converted to Catholicism in 1945 and took the baptismal name Eugenio in honor of Pius XII. 

After the Second World War, Pius XII was met with new challenges as he led the Church in a fractured, war-torn Europe facing the emerging Cold War. Pius XII took an uncompromising stance against communism, excommunicating professed communists in 1949 in the document titled the Decree Against Communism. He also strongly condemned the persecution of the Eastern Church under the Soviet Union. Pope Venerable Pius XII’s papacy ended with his death on October 9, 1958. Pius XII’s cause for canonization was opened on November 18, 1965, by Saint Paul VI. He was declared a Servant of God in 1990 by Saint John Paul II and was declared Venerable by Pope Benedict XVI on December 19, 2009.

End Notes:

[1] “The Vatican & the Holocaust: 860,000 Lives Saved - the Truth about Pius XII & the Jews.” 2026. Jewish Virtual Library. 2026. https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/860-000-lives-saved-the-truth-about-pius-xii-and-the-jews.

[2] Budapest, in. 2019. “Rescue in the Holocaust.” Rescue in the Holocaust. 2019. https://www.holocaustrescue.org/chronology-of-rescue-by-vatican-diplomats-in-budapest.

Father Reiser, An Accidental Missionary

On Thursday, February 5th 2026, one of the Holy Cross’ most committed stewards left Mt. St. James and entered into retirement at the Jesuit Campion Center in Weston, Massachusetts. I was fortunate enough to conduct an informal interview with Father Reiser on December 9th, prior to his departure. Throughout our discussion, there were many experiences which I found profoundly insightful. In this piece, I would like to most thoroughly cover the aspects of Fr. Reiser’s life which are most personal to him: his missionary work.

Fr. Reiser was born in Connecticut, the oldest of a family of ten. Early in his youth, the soon-to-be-priest felt a great calling, a “mystery” which continued to prompt an “intense feeling that… this is the calling.” God may have called him through his family’s experience in WWII: “[m]y father was in the Second World War, in the forces on Normandy. When he was in the war, he went to Mass regularly. There was something about my parents’ faith … I don't know what it was that caught me. But it really caught my attention.”

After completing eighth grade, Fr. Reiser would follow this sense into the St. Thomas Minor Seminary in Bloomfield, Connecticut. As part of a six year program, students at St. Thomas were nurtured through a thorough cultivation of classical studies. On why he ultimately chose the Jesuits, of all the Catholic orders, Fr. Reiser joked, “I was, as in the famous line from the movie Casablanca,  misinformed.’ 
I thought they were all missionaries. Yeah, I said, ‘All Jesuits were missionaries.’ 
And what I wanted to do was become a missionary, to go on missions… The Jesuits were one of the largest missionary orders in the church. 
And that's all I knew. I did not know any Jesuits.”

One of the stories which drove his intense passion to go on missions came from the book These Two Hands. The story follows Father E.J. Edwards as “a missionary in the Philippines. And he was nervous about having contact with the native people because you never could tell what would happen. And he was afraid of contracting leprosy. [But] there was a fire in a village, and he realized that there was a woman in there who was a leper, who was unable to get out of her house. 
And so what he did, he went in and rescued her. The result was that he took her out, carrying her out, but his hands were scarred for the rest of his life. And I thought, ‘Well, could I do something like that?’ That was the question. And so I said, ‘Well, you don't know unless you try it.’ You know, who knows? 
But it stayed in the back of my head.”

His desire to teach the world eventually came to fruition. Over the course of his apostolic career, Fr. Reiser visited many countries: India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, to Paraguay, Peru, and especially Bolivia, which he visited many times. He wanted to understand how people in the Andean world heard the gospel. What difference does the Andean context make? What would an Andean theology look like? 

“Andean theology,” Fr. Reiser explains, “would be theology as done taking culture seriously. How do you understand and express the gospel, along with, say, the culture of the Aymara people… For example, you've got a long, long tradition that goes back to the Inca. So there's some things that you won't understand unless you understand where this is coming from, you know? What do you do? Do you reject it out right and say, this is problematic for our faith? Or do you see how people from within a culture have appropriated the gospel in a unique way. So, for example, in the Andean world, the Pachamama is very important. What is it? Well, Pachamama is present everywhere. Pachamama is like a divine presence. It has to do with rocks and mountains and water and wheat, and so on. The Pachamama is the earth, but the earth as being generous. At any rate, if you're brought up in that culture, then the way you appropriate faith is different.”

He continues with several anecdotes from his missions: “We were driving, one day, up La Cumbre in a jeep. 
We're at about 13,000, almost 14,000 feet. It's pretty high up. And there was a Jesuit driving, and we were going by that mountain, way at the top, and he made some kind of a gesture towards the mountain, and then we continued driving. 
I said, ‘Ricardo, what was that? What did you just do?’ And he laughed and said, ‘Oh, my mother taught us that when we were kids. You don't go past the mountains without asking permission.’ Now, it makes no sense if you don't grow up there. If you grow up there, it's all around you. You're living in the Andes. It's a different world. So, it's a very small example, but a place where you get to see the influence of a culture, a longstanding culture, and the way in which people live off of their faith today. 


“And there's much of that. In the Andean world, community is extremely important. This is true at other places as well, but in the Andean world, just to make a decision, you do it together. And if you're not on board, we wait. We just wait until there is consensus, and then we go forward. In the Andean world, the idea that somebody could actually own a piece of the earth is odd. The Earth includes the bones of the Pachamama, and we happen to be passing through. 
You can't own property. So the whole Western idea of real estate… putting a title or a claim on a land is just something that’s foreign to them.

“One of the missionaries told a story, ‘The women would come in with their produce, and they'd be sitting outside selling things all day long, like oranges… And this one visitor came by and looked at them; she wanted to buy all the oranges. And the campesino—she was a campesino—she said, no, she wouldn't sell them all. And we said, ‘Why not?’ And she said, ‘Because, what will I do for the rest of the day? I have nothing else to do today.’” It's so different from our way of thinking.

Fr. Reiser continues to elaborate on how these experiences shaped his vocation. “As the years are going by, the different parts of the world that I've been able to see, have found [their] way into the things that I say in class. It's there. The same is true with being in ministry, as a Priest. That what's going on around you has an effect on who you are as a person. So we don't just preach. You preach what you believe. There's a special… grace that comes from the experience of preaching. When the effort is really to open up the scriptural words, to reflect on that with a group of people, a parish or a congregation. The people hearing not just you and not just the word, they're also hearing you as a person. And I would say that the people draw things out of us. Students do, too. Students draw things from teachers. If we reflect on what's happening, after a number of years, I think that we'd have to say that lots of what we have learned has been drawn out of us from our students.”

There is much more wisdom that came out of my discussion with Fr. Reiser; especially in regard to Holy Cross throughout the last fifty years, the role of education in public life, and of his domestic career and courses he has taught. However, in an effort to more fully disclose his experiences, I will render them in a later piece. This piece centered on his missionary work because it was evident that he cared deeply for these communities, and that was what set off his priestly vocation.

Pray for Father Reiser, his fellow Jesuits, and his family as he enters a new chapter in his life. He hopes to take advantage of his retirement to write, and to continue to engage with the communities of St. Bernard’s and St. Luke’s parishes in the Diocese of Worcester. None of us is ever a missionary by accident!

A Biblical Defense of the Eucharist

The American Catholic novelist Flannery O’Connor famously said on the Eucharist, “If it’s just a symbol, to hell with it.” O’Connor’s language may be stark, but necessarily frank to demonstrate the gravity of the Host. From the inception of the Church, the affirmation of the Real Presence was rooted in Christ's own words. In the Bread of Life discourse, Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world" (John 6:51). This is very clearly Jesus talking about how His flesh is the bread from Heaven, reaffirming the Real Presence of Him in the Eucharist. But not everyone immediately believed, questioning Jesus’s meaning in saying that they had to eat Him; “the Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?’” (John 6:52). But Jesus, after the doubt of the people about eating His flesh, doubled down. “Jesus said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you’” (John 6:53). Jesus also emphasizes the importance of the Eucharist, saying, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (John 6:54). Jesus in the original Greek also changes the word He uses for eat after He stresses his point. When He originally commands them to eat, He used the word phago, which simply means “to eat” in Greek, but the second time He shifts to trōgon, which means “to literally gnaw or chew,” emphasizing the importance of physically eating Him in the Eucharist.

Even after all of that, there were still those who did not believe in what Jesus said and did not believe when He said that you had to eat His flesh to have eternal life. Those people said “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” (John 6:60). Jesus responds by saying, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:61-63). Notice Jesus does not say “my flesh” is of no avail He says “the flesh” is of no avail [1]. Jesus also says He “Knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him” (John 6:64), saying also “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father” (John 6:65). Subsequently, many disciples left Jesus because of this teaching. “As a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (John 6:66). Many disciples left Jesus because of His teaching on the Eucharist as shown above, but Jesus did not change His teaching. He doubles down, stressing  the literal truth of His teaching on eating His flesh; even saying you have no life in you unless you eat His flesh and drink His blood in John 6:53. The Gospel of St. John demonstrates and emphasizes the literal nature and significance of eating and drinking the real flesh and blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is truly “the source and summit of Christian life” (CCC 1324).

End Notes:

[1] Broussard, Karlo. 2019. “Why Communion If Flesh Is of No Avail?” Catholic Answers. https://www.catholic.com/qa/why-communion-if-flesh-is-of-no-avail.

Carthusian Life and Liturgy

The Carthusian Order is an enclosed religious order in the Catholic Church. In June of 1084, S. Bruno was called by the Bishop of Grenoble to establish a desert hermitage. Bruno felt that the seclusion of the Chartreuse valley in southeastern France was suitable for monastic life. Soon after, Bruno established a second hermitage in Calabria, Italy. He did not leave behind a written rule. Rather, the Carthusian Order has passed down his unique encapsulation of both eremitical and communal (cenobitic) monasticism [1]. This article will introduce the life of Carthusian monks as well as analyze their very unique liturgical theology. The aim is for an application of their charism and liturgical posture into a devotion for the laity.

Carthusian monasteries, called Charterhouses (named after Bruno’s first establishment in La Grande Chartreuse), begin their “day” at eleven in the evening. This is when the office of Matins, followed by Lauds, is prayed. The Angelus follows. Between two and three in the morning, the monks are permitted to return to their cells for rest, before rising again at six. Following the second rising, the office of Prime and another Angelus is prayed, preparation for Mass follows. At eight, there is a Conventual Mass, or Mass in Community.  Interestingly, the offices of Terce, Sext, and None, are prayed by each monk individually. The Carthusian prays three types of offices: the standard Office of the Carthusian Rite, the Office of the Dead, and the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary [2].

The work for a monk depends upon the modality of his vocation. Monastic vocations to the Carthusian order are divided into two main categories in order to support the entirety of the Charterhouse. The cloister monks are ordained and can never leave their cells without permission, unless to attend the appointed times of the recitation of the office and Mass. While in their cell, cloister monks study and do work that is limited to either preparation for ordination, continuing education, or maintaining food and the landscape of their cell. The cell is not a singular room that might be found in Cistercian or Benedictine monasteries, but a small house with a workshop and garden [3]. St. Benedict himself addresses the need for manual labor and study in Chapter XLVIII of his Rule: “Idleness is inimical to the soul; and therefore the brethren ought to be occupied, at fixed seasons, with manual work and again at fixed seasons with spiritual reading: and so we think the hours for each should be arranged on this plan.” The lay brother monks mirror the cloister monks in that their life is marked by prayer and work. However, this work is done more to contribute to the collective physical existence of the Charterhouse itself. Examples of this work include cooking and facility maintenance. Lay brothers also live alone in cells, but with less utilities as they are not confined.

The Statues of the Carthusian Order describe the liturgy as “manifest[ing] in a special way the nature of the Church in which the human is directed and subjected to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation” [4]. The Carthusian Rite can be originally found in the twelfth century. While Pope Pius V made adherence to the rubrics and propers of the Roman Missal required, the ancient Carthusian Rite was permitted due to its antecedence [5]. The rite itself derives from the bringing of the faith to Lyons by Ss. Pothinus and Irenaeus. Gregorian chant, interior devotion, and the physical manifestation of the Communion Rite form the basis of their communal participation.

There are two bodily actions of the celebrant that part the Carthusian Rite. The first is the fully extended arms (compared to the lesser extension of arms in the Roman Rite) of the priest similar to that of the extended arms of Christ. While this gesture, the orans position, has been in the Church since the first century, the Carthusian Rite’s emphasis and feature of the posture is itself a representation of their own sacrificial charism [6]. These monks make a unique sacrifice of isolation, labor, and prayer both to the Church and to the Christian faithful in their daily intercession for them. The celebrant in his role as the consecrator of the Holy Eucharist extends this charism into the Eucharistic sacrifice.

The second distinguishing gesture is prostration. The celebrant and community prostrate during the description of the annunciation, during the creed, after the elevation, and at the priest’s communion. Emphasized here is an attitude of unworthiness and humility. The sacred mysteries presented at the Mass demand a direction of subjection towards God. This is an act of justice, a fundamental Thomistic principle, as addressed in Question 21 of the First Part of the Summa Theologica.

The Carthusians bear an impressive and self-giving witness in the Church’s monastic life. But how can the laity take after them in their own spiritual lives? It begins with the little things. Perhaps instead of going straight to your phone as a source of entertainment when sloth sets in, a rosary can be prayed, a spiritual book read, or mental prayer in the presence of idleness and silence observed. To follow the Divine Office, smaller and more pointed offices for specific devotions can be prayed. The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is very popular, but there are many other little offices. The website LOBVM.com recently compiled a digital publication titled A Big Book of Little Offices, included in this volume are offices as diverse as the Little Office of S. Thomas Aquinas to the Little Office of the Holy Cross. The day can be sanctified by dividing one’s school work or manual labor with prayer and spiritual reading. Creating a personal horarium or schedule with specific times dedicated to work, study, and prayer can aid in this endeavor. We can follow the advice of St. Catherine of Siena, who wrote in an advice to her confessor, “Build a cell inside your mind, from which you can never flee.”

End Notes:

[1] (Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, 1995, 338.)

[2] (“The Day – the Carthusian Monks,” n.d. https://chartreux.org/moines/en/a-carthusian-day/.)

[3] (The Statutes of the Carthusian Order, Book II)

[4] (The Statutes of the Carthusian Order, Book VI)

[5] (Pope Pius V, Quo Primum (1570))

[6] (Tertullian, De Oratione, 14)

In Memory of an American Legend: Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk, aged 31, a husband and father of two young children has been assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University. Kirk was a devout Christian and founder of the grassroots conservative movement Turning Point USA (TPUSA), and a great once in a generation political talent. He founded TPUSA in 2012, shortly after dropping out of college. Despite his lack of higher education, Kirk brought an abundance of knowledge, skill, and charisma to American conservatism. Fostering that talent, Kirk grew TPUSA from a small organization into one of the most influential political organizations in America. TPUSA today has a presence on 3,500 campuses. 

Kirk and TPUSA stood to defend the traditional Christian values and morals which are the basis of American and Western civilization; courageously and unapologetically, but with much civility. He valiantly spoke out against the great evils of our time, like the murder of the unborn, moral relativism, and an over-reaching government.

Kirk played a pivotal role in steering America back towards traditional values and truth by winning over the hearts and minds of America’s youth. To quote President Trump’s statement on Truth Social, in honor of Charlie, “[n]o one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.” Willing to engage in dialogue with youth, Kirk would famously place himself in college campuses and debate anyone and treat them respectfully even if he disagreed with them, and even if the people he was debating were rude and disrespectful. Kirk was one of the few public political figures to do so and could do it effectively. History has yet to reveal the impact of Kirk’s influence and tact on American political culture; many of his close friends and colleagues had held high hopes for his political aspirations.

Kirk, a stout advocate of civil debate until the moment of his tragic death, is an American patriot and a legend of the conservative movement; a symbol of nonviolent, civil dialogue. Kirk’s horrific assasination is a tragic end to a promising future and a devastating loss to America. There is no way of predicting the shockwaves his death will cause and its presence as an emblem of political violence.

One thing is for sure though, this is an extremely dangerous and volatile moment, no one should be killed on the basis of their speech, we cannot have a nation survive like this. So we are faced with one option as a nation: we have to be like Charlie and engage in respectful civil dialogue, and defend truth with courage and compassion. We cannot intimidate or use violence and assassinations when we disagree. If we go down a path of political violence our nation will cease to exist. As we remember this American legend, let us pray for the repose of his soul, let us pray that his family and friends find solace in the Lord, let us pray that God will bless America, and for an end to political violence.

Niceno-Constantinopolitan Triune Ecclesial Markers of the Church

During the liturgy, the Christian faithful recite the Nicene Creed. A central part of this creed is the affirmation of the Four Marks of the Church, proclaimed when the faithful say they believe “in one holy catholic and apostolic Church”, which was added at the First Council of Constantinople. These markers hold the depth of what constitutes the primary authority of the faith, revealed in the councils and being in Communion with the true body of tradition that was revealed by God through Christ and received by the Apostles. The Triune markers of the Church are what identify Her as the one, sole, and true Body of Christ. They reveal where the Triune God is able to be truly present to the fullest extent in the revealed Word.

Unity is a both visible and invisible sign of the catholicity of the Church. The essence of the concept can be described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:17, where he writes “[b]ecause there is one bread, we who are many are one body...”. Saint and Church Father Cyprian of Carthage uses a fitting analogy in his work On the Unity of the Church, writing, “The Church is one, which is spread abroad far and wide into a multitude by an increase of fruitfulness... just as the sun has many rays but one light.” Many times in the modern ecclesial landscape schismatic behavior is witnessed over changes with regards to the Liturgy. Both Paul and St. Cyprian show that this is a fruitless cause for concern, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church describes that “The diverse liturgical traditions or rites, legitimately recognized, manifest the catholicity of the Church, because they signify and communicate the same mystery of Christ.” (CCC 1208). The Novus Ordo liturgy is no less than the Latin Mass of the 1962 missal, nor is it less than the Eastern rites, as they can all ascribe to sound past teachings of the Church in all aspects of worship. Paul describes that there is “one bread” that serves as the Eucharistic unity of the Church as a primary meaning of his epistle. A secondary meaning exists, however, as Eucharistic communion has doctrinal implications. For there to be sacramental unity, there must exist a shared faith. Separating the Eucharist from doctrinal unity would mean to separate Christ’s teaching of one Faith and one true Church. “The celebration of the Eucharist, however, cannot be the starting point for communion; it presupposes that communion already exists...” (cf. Ecclesia de Eucharistia (Pope St. John Paul II, 2003), §35).

The Gospel of Matthew calls for the Christian to “[b]e you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Even in the Canon of the Old Testament, the Lord says to Abraham, "[w]alk before me, and be blameless" (Genesis 17:1). Sanctity is a defining process that brings a sinner closer to unity and oneness with God through Theosis. The Universal Call to Holiness is what is given to the soul upon its Baptism. This call is present for all the Baptized using the Triune formula, and is dependent on the continuing process of Salvation for a soul to complete in its entirety. It is important to note here that the condescending God lowers Himself to that of the level of mere mortal human sinners. Thus, the Salvation in this context is through the faithful who have been blessed by the presence of the Gospel in their lives. The Catechism teaches that “[t]hose who, through no fault of their own, do not know the gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation” (CCC 847). Continuing, if God became man to free us from the bonds of sin, then thus we are made to become like God through holiness in our lives through faith and works. Salvation is not a single moment or revelation, although the process to salvation can begin with a moment of defining Grace, but it is the continuity vocation that the Universal Call to Holiness entails. The primary method of achieving said Call is through the Church. This is both through Her Sacraments but also in the various devotionals to the Triune God and veneration of the Saints who have become holy themselves that exist in the faithful. Emphasizing the Baptism, Church Father St. Clement of Alexandria wrote in Book Seven of the Stromata “The baptized person is illuminated, he is adopted as a son, he becomes holy and righteous.”

The Apostolic marker of the Church is most visible in the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Scripturally, it is centered in the Gospel (specifically, the Great Commission). In Matthew 28:19-20, Christ orders his disciples to “[t]herefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” St. Irenaeus writes in Book 3 of Against Heresies, “We are in a position to enumerate those who were appointed bishops in the churches by the apostles... and to show the succession of these men to our own time.” The ecclesial concept of Holy Orders itself is in and through Christ and his earthly ministry. It is the fulfillment of both of the aspects of the Great Commission. The first aspect is the order of the Christian faithful to make disciples themselves, guiding others to the Truth of Christ in His Church along with the cleansing and Christening of the soul in Baptism. The second aspect is what happens as a result of the disciple being created, focusing on the Universal Call to Holiness discussed previously. Religious life, particularly mendicant orders such as the Franciscan family, Dominicans, and Jesuits, whose unique charism each seek to build disciples and form them the ways of Christ. For the Franciscans, this is focused primarily on the materially poor. For the Dominicans, the spiritually poor. For the Jesuits, it is a combination of both materially and spiritually poor through missionary work and education in the Faith. Educational apostolates serve both aspects of the Great Commission, making disciples by calling students to Baptism or the deepening of their current faith. Those whose souls have been permanently marked by Christ in the Sacrament of Ordination are called by Him to follow and emulate Christ through a variety of means, which can be simplified to both growing and guarding the flock of Christ. While examples of Religious Priesthood show specific charisms of the following of Christ in the way of a particular Saint or Blessed, the Diocesan Priesthood in itself maintains what is perfectly captured in the life of Saint John Vianney, a diocesan priest in many parishes in Ars, France. Pope John XXIII declared him the patron of the holiness of parish clergy. His life was marked by a particular attention to bringing about radical spiritual transformation through the visible signs of the Grace of Jesus Christ in the form of the Sacraments, particularly the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. The sacramental role of those in Holy Orders in the Apostolic marker of the Church allows for the deification of the faithful through the sacrifices that they offer in persona Christi.