Joshua Whitfield

March 11, 2019

Column: We humans weren’t built to be digitally connected to the world 24/7

In his 1942 memoir, Austrian writer Stephan Zweig tells of hearing Hitler’s voice on the radio while riding a train in Texas, of hearing in real time about bombings and atrocities from all over the world, an experience which was new in human history and not altogether welcome. “Thanks to our new methods of spreading news […]
March 3, 2019

Column: The habits of Lent and seeing Christ

“What is most contrary to salvation is not sin but habit.” These are the words of Charles Péguy, instigator, poet, soldier, Catholic. And they’re words which, for me, come to mind as we begin our Lent again. He was talking about those habits which control us, shape us, which although small by themselves, together can define […]
February 28, 2019

Column: I’m a married Catholic priest who thinks priests shouldn’t get married

My wife and I, we have four children, all younger than 7. Ours is not a quiet house. A house of screaming and a house of endless snot, it’s also a house of love, grown and multiplied every few years. In a house of little sleep, my hobby these days is simply to sit down; fellow […]
February 19, 2019

Column: Christianity suffers from false parodies on the right and the left

What passes for Christianity, what people see and mistake for Christianity, that’s what’s wrong with it. That Christianity — the phenomena, not the faith — has been eclipsed by parody; it’s why so many dismiss it. Because what’s laughable and incredible isn’t genuine Christianity, but rather a counterfeit too often misconstrued for the real thing.
January 25, 2019

Column: The public face of Christianity has become a cartoon

It was the hat, you see, that smile, that smirk. Julie Irwin Zimmerman, writing for The Atlantic, called it a Rorschach test, which is the best way to think of that viral scene involving students from Covington Catholic High School and Nathan Phillips. Proving true what C.S. Lewis wrote: What you see and hear depends upon your point […]
March 28, 2024

Holy Thursday Homily: The Simple Beautiful Thing

He’s one of my new favorite saints.
March 24, 2024

Homily: Only Jesus Christ

I can’t help but to keep coming back to what Saint Paul said to the Corinthians, what he wrote to them.
March 3, 2024

Homily: The Cathedral Provokes a Contemptuous World

“[T]he cathedral provokes a contemptuous world.”[1] That’s a line from a little poem by Rilke; it’s something Rodin had said. Rilke, the poet, for a time worked for Rodin, the sculptor, until they had a falling out as artists often do.
February 18, 2024

Homily: The First Lesson of Lent

For Saint Augustine, that great doctor of the Church and light of theology and civilization, his journey to the faith, his conversion to Christianity, his path to baptism was very painful.
January 28, 2024

Homily: What to Preach When you Can’t Think of What to Preach

Lacking much rhetorical invention this week, I thought I’d pull back the curtain in his homily and make it more of a “how-to,” or a homily about a homily or something like that. That is, I thought it interesting (at least for me) to share with you how I go about thinking up and writing a […]
December 23, 2023

Homily: The Last Lesson of Advent is to Focus

Advent, as we live it out today, does I think suffer from mixed messaging.