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Michelle Arnold

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August 2024

August 04, 2024

Engagement Rings are the New Olympic Rings, and I Hate It

Call me a crabby, bitter spinster, but a new trend has been popping up over...

May 2024

May 27, 2024

Yes, Father, YTA

I enjoy reading Reddit's popular forum, Am I the A**h*le? (AITA). Curious souls who wonder...

February 2024

February 11, 2024

“I Hated That Woman!”: The Human Frailty of the Saints

Catholics are already arguing about a new movie set to hit theaters in March. Cabrini,...

December 2023

December 17, 2023

When Converting the World Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

When I became Catholic in 1996, it was Testimony Time in the Church in the...

July 2023

July 30, 2023

Hold the Tots and Pears

... or, The Gentle Art of Keeping Your Prayers to Yourself Jesus' best known advice...

July 04, 2023

Confessions of an Inconsistent Scribbler

My patient content manager here at Patheos gently reminded me recently that it has been...

December 2022

December 29, 2022

The Choice Is Mary’s

Years ago, at Advent, I wrote an essay for Catholic Answers on St. Matthew's account...

October 2022

October 06, 2022

Missionary Friendship v. Authentic Kindness

In the decade or so I've been on Facebook, I've made it a point to...

October 01, 2022

Catholic Answers and the Trouble with Yoga

In a recent Dark Devotional for Sick Pilgrim, I commented on how Catholic Answers, where...

June 2022

June 28, 2022

Pro-Lifers and the Case of the Invisible Woman

I really don't have the mental energy right now to dive deep into the cluster—,...

May 2022

May 22, 2022

How to Bring Catholics Back to Mass

A friend, I'll call him Chad,* once told me how his sister, Kayla, finally made...

April 2022

April 20, 2022

Conversions and Catholic Sola Scriptura

Perhaps the most poignant conversion story I've read was that of Rabbi Israel Zolli (1881–1956),...

April 04, 2022

How Not to Be a Terrible Sea Lion

"There are no bad questions" is one of those collected pearls of wisdom that sounds...

March 2022

March 12, 2022

Apologetics Mistakes and Circling the Memory Hole

When the rapper Clifford Harris Jr. (also known as T.I.) told the world during a...

March 05, 2022

A Lapsed Catholic’s Guide to Observing Lent

"Want to go with me to confession?" My roommate routinely asks me this question, knowing...

November 2021

November 04, 2021

The Virgin and the Philosophers

A few years ago, the Church marked the fiftieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae, Paul VI's...

October 2021

October 22, 2021

Praying for Pity’s Sake

After twenty years of navigating discussions with strangers online, a dozen of those years spent...

September 2021

September 03, 2021

The Time I Had a D&C

Catholic Answers always provided health insurance for full-time employees, but for many years I could...

June 2021

June 10, 2021

Priests Should Mind Their Own Business

A couple of months ago, I examined the case of a lay moral theologian who...

April 2021

April 29, 2021

Kill the Cat Apologetics

I like to say that I became a professional Catholic apologist by "on the job...

April 28, 2021

St. Gianna and the Freedom of Choice

Today is the feast of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian physician who died of...

April 19, 2021

Catholic “Sexperts” Should Mind Their Own Business

Imagine, if you will, that you are a woman in her seventies, happily married for...

January 2021

January 28, 2021

Apologies of a Pro-Choice, Pro-Life Catholic

No, I'm not going to offer expressions of remorse for outing myself in Why I'm...

January 27, 2021

In Defense of Preferred Pronouns

About a week ago, Joseph Strickland, the bishop of Tyler, Texas, and an active tweeter,...

December 2020

December 14, 2020

To Whom Would Jesus Deny Communion?

Joe Biden is the second Catholic to be elected President of the United States, a...

December 11, 2020

What Mary Knew Is Her Own Business

Welcome to Advent, that time of year when Christians ponder the deep mysteries of the...

November 2020

November 30, 2020

O Stay Home, All Ye Hypocrites

Some years ago, the big Christmas news story was that churches were closing for Christmas....

November 25, 2020

Scandal In an Age of Scandal

I bit back a smile when I saw a new essay pop up on Catholic...

November 19, 2020

Reject Nothing That’s True

When I was preparing to write a booklet for Catholic Answers on New Age beliefs...

November 07, 2020

“Are You Still Catholic?”

To say that my transition from a staff apologist at Catholic Answers to a freelance...