Posts by Rev. Robert Sirico
September 10, 2021
It feels strange to type that it’s been 20 years since 9/11. What happened 20 years ago forced us all to reckon with the expansive scope and seemingly endless depth of evil. Continue Reading...
May 07, 2021
Sen. Tim Scott’s message of redemption resonates
In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Biden offered a renewed vision of America, claiming a revitalizing economy, a growing distribution of vaccinations, and efforts to end injustice against race and gender identity. Continue Reading...
June 23, 2020
America’s founding vision must be retrieved
Grand Rapids, my home for the last 30 years, a tranquil and polite place, has recently experienced demonstrations and violence like other American cities. A lot of confusion and pain abound. Continue Reading...
December 25, 2019
The gift of the Incarnation
All of life is God’s gracious gift. This graciousness applies not only to ourselves and our neighbors, each of whom is made in His image and likeness, but applies as well to the whole of creation which was entrusted to the human family’s care and cultivation (Gen. Continue Reading...
May 13, 2019
Homeschoolers build debate case with ‘Poverty Cure’
Last month I met with a wonderful family putting Acton Institute resources to good use in the Golden State. Glenn Ballard, the proud father and coach of Katherine (14) and Eliyah Ballard (13), presented me with a case which his girls have been running in their homeschool debate league. Continue Reading...
April 24, 2019
Fr. James V. Schall (1928-2019): Generous heart, towering intellect
The first time I met Fr. James Schall it was around 1984 when I was a seminarian at the Catholic University of America in search of a spiritual director. We met and although Fr. Continue Reading...
February 21, 2019
Pope Francis pardons Marxist priest in Nicaragua: Has the Sandinista priest changed his stripes?
Having visited Nicaragua just prior to and immediately following the elections which initially ousted the Sandinistas from power in 1990, I was struck by the news this week from Rome.
Evidently sometime in the last few weeks, when exactly remains unclear, Pope Francis lifted the canonical penalties imposed by Pope St. Continue Reading...
February 11, 2019
Socialism, by any other name
At the end of January I had the pleasure to speak with my friend of many years Ricardo Ball about the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. The conversation was livestreamed from the Acton Institute allowing an international audience to listen in as we discussed recent developments from the streets of Caracas. Continue Reading...
January 25, 2019
St. Philip Neri on the Covington Catholic boys
The sinister and irreparable nature of gossip is memorably illustrated in the penance St. Philip Neri once gave to a woman who had confessed it to him. He told her to walk through the streets of Rome plucking a chicken. Continue Reading...
January 16, 2019
Homeschooling a parent’s choice, not the state’s
Decades ago, when I was first ordained a priest, I shared a prejudice that many people hold: I thought homeschooling families were odd. I believed schooling children at home deprived such children of opportunities to be with other children causing them to be less able to communicate with others, socially awkward and reclusive and narrow in their experience and understanding of the world that they would one day have to grow up in and navigate. Continue Reading...