Whatever Happened to Lent?

A New Idea of Lent has invaded the entire Church. A gauzy altruism has taken the place of a rigorous program of penance and prayer. 

Published in Crisis Magazine on March 20, 2024

O America!  

No, not the nation, the Jesuit monthly.  

It never fails to disappoint. That is, if you are a secularized, self-loathing Catholic.  

Actually, that was not always its audience. When it began in 1909, it was a robustly intellectual journal of Catholic writing rivaling the tony liberal periodicals of the early 20th century. This was the heyday of liberal hegemony in American thought, with such names as John Dewey, Henry James, Woodrow Wilson, and Oliver Wendell Holmes shaping American thinking. The titanic Jesuits of that time would have none of this. They founded America with the intention of toppling the reigning liberal gods of the time. Issue after issue defended the Church’s immemorial teaching with deep intellectual precision coupled with a dash of delectable panache. 

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