Michael Warren Davis, Author at Catholic Herald

Michael Warren Davis

Iraqi immigrants supported Trump. So why is his administration deporting them?

July 25, 2019

Poor St Thomas is the only Apostle remembered not for his faith, but for his doubt. And yet, having placed his hands in Christ’s wounds, he took up Our Lord’s call to “make disciples of all nations” with particular zeal. According to tradition, Thomas carried the faith as far as India – a community still known

Is Big Tech trying to suppress the pro-life movement?

July 18, 2019

Donald Trump and Elizabeth Warren have both made headlines this past week, accusing social media companies of aiding and comforting the enemy. The President claims that Twitter censors right-wing voices; meanwhile, the Massachusetts senator says that Facebook didn’t do enough to curtail “fake news” during the 2016 election. Regardless of whether Big Tech is hostile to

Why don’t Catholics listen to bishops on immigration?

July 11, 2019

Pope Francis and Donald Trump make little effort to conceal their disagreements. During the 2016 US presidential election, Francis suggested that Trump was “not Christian” for proposing to build a wall along the US-Mexico border – his campaign’s signature policy. Trump fired back by calling Francis’s comment “disgraceful,” adding: “No leader, especially a religious leader, should

How do abortifacients affect mental health? We still don’t know

July 04, 2019

Women should be no more reluctant to terminate a pregnancy than they should be to have their wisdom teeth removed. That is the conclusion one must draw from the pro-choice movement’s claim that abortion is merely a “women’s health issue”. But what if abortion itself has a negative impact on women’s health? There is certainly

The Che Guevara quote that incensed Miami’s Catholics

July 04, 2019

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio cribbed an infamous communist militant’s catchphrase during a speech to striking airline workers on Thursday. “¡Hasta la victoria siempre!” the 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful proclaimed, which means: “Until victory, always.” These are the words Che Guevara spoke when he left Cuba to foster revolution in South America. As expected,

The Catholic school that would make Socrates proud

July 04, 2019

Thank God for homeschoolers. As America’s public school system continues to collapse, and even parochial schools grow more expensive as they become less faithful, many Catholics find they have no recourse but to take the burden of their children’s education upon themselves. It’s well worth their effort, of course – but it can be just

Vocations start young – and other lessons from a major study

June 27, 2019

If we’re to resolve the vocations crisis in the United States, it might be helpful to determine who’s seeking ordination already. A new study from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University provides a trove of information that could explain precisely that. The most interesting statistic may be the age

Not all conservative Catholics are unsettled by Francis’s pontificate

June 20, 2019

Since the 2016 presidential election, arguing has rapidly supplanted baseball as America’s national pastime. Middle aged-men now congregate in dingy bars to watch 24/7 cable news coverage of the Mueller report. Instead of cheering on the home team during the World Series, they angrily agree with one another that the CNN correspondent Jake Tapper is

Could Archbishop Gómez lead the US bishops out of the doldrums?

June 20, 2019

From 2004 until his retirement last year, Michael J Bransfield served as Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston. It’s the perfect posting for a prelate who wants all the perks of the office without the distractions of being a pastor. The diocese in poverty-stricken West Virginia allegedly brings in $15 million from oil fields it owns in Texas,

What happens when a priest is too traditional for his parish?

June 13, 2019

It’s something of a trope these days. First, a young priest is assigned to a new parish, where he reintroduces elements of the pre-Vatican II liturgy. Younger, more conservative parishioners are thrilled; older, more progressive ones are outraged. Then, the bishop sides with the older folks against the priest and his more youthful admirers. The

The small college attracting some of the Church’s best brains

May 23, 2019

These are the first days of spring in New England, when you begin to understand why Robert Frost said “nature’s first green is gold”. Three pigs turn on rotisseries made of brick and mortar. The men, decked in flannel shirts and waistcoats, sing folk-songs about Thérèse of Lisieux. Young women in light dresses string garlands

A ‘mortal threat’ to religious freedom in California

May 23, 2019

As it stands, all clergymen in California are “mandated reporters”, meaning the state requires them to report suspected instances of the sexual abuse of a minor. However, the law exempts one who “acquires knowledge or a reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect during a penitential communication” – most obviously, Catholic priests hearing confessions. California’s

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