Archive
More than thirty-five years of First Things articles at your fingertips
Articles
Til Death Do Us Part
Marriages end in death. This isn’t news, but rarely is it foremost in the minds of the happy couple exchanging vows. In the group photos, no one is wondering...
Where the Dallas Charter Went Wrong
In Peter Weir’s 1981 film Gallipoli, hundreds of Australian foot soldiers, armed only with bayonets, are sent, wave upon wave, into the machine-gun fire of Turkish troops. This depiction...
When Forgiveness of Sins Becomes a Financial Liability
According to the latest study of U.S. Catholic priests, released in mid-October, there still exists a widespread and worrying lack of trust and confidence among diocesan priests regarding their...
A Solution to a Kafkaesque Clerical Conundrum
“Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was arrested.” When Franz Kafka wrote the opening line of his famous story The Trial a century ago
Who’s Really Calling the Shots at U.S. Diocesan Chanceries?
The Second Vatican Council taught that bishops are not mere delegates of the pope, regional managers of an international operation headquartered in Rome. On the contrary, bishops have authority...
