Matthew Schmitz

We are facing a war on the weak, and no magazine battles it in its various guises as consistently as does First Things. Continue Reading »

Cardinal Blase Cupich pretends to be a friend to people who need a father.  Continue Reading »

Pets are replacing America’s children. According to the marketing research firm Mintel, two-thirds of American pet owners treat their pets as “part of the family.” One-third say that their pets understand their feelings better than most humans. Half care as much about the . . . . Continue Reading »

An interview with Edwin Mary Akaedu.  Continue Reading »

The Paris Statement decries the faux Christendom of democracy, but we will need more than local patriotism and recollection of Christian roots to combat it.  Continue Reading »

Evelyn Waugh understood that Christianity is not a matter of blood, or of race, or of victory in this world.  Continue Reading »

Catholics distinguish between violations of manners and of the moral law; Fr. James Martin, in ways trivial and grave, does not. Continue Reading »

Conversion—not ecclesial nativism—is the American Catholic tradition. Continue Reading »

When I last visited New Orleans, the Robert E. Lee Monument was being used as an altar. Two voodoo priestesses, turbans atop their heads, scattered gunpowder and grave dirt on the granite plinth. With splendid indifference to those who had erected the memorial, they summoned their gods through an . . . . Continue Reading »

First Things brings a sporting spirit to the intellectual life—a willingness to sweat, a belief in fair play, and the desire to win. Continue Reading »