I have been prompted to write, today, by Christine Emba's Guest Essay, published in The New York Times on April 28, 2026. The title of Emba's essay - you can take your pick - is either, "A Catholic Church's Defiance Of Trump" [from the hardcopy version of the paper] or, "What A Catholic Church Unafraid Of Donald Trump Means To The World" [which is the online version of the title]. I am assured by The Times that even non-subscribers will be able to read the entire column, just by clicking that link I have provided.
I was struck by Emba's suggestion, in the next-to-last paragraph of her essay, that we are experiencing a "Catholic Moment." Maybe we are, and I have to say that I certainly was experiencing such a "Catholic Moment," myself, as I read The Times on April 28th, since I turned to The Times, and to Emba's column, immediately after having read the 93rd Anniversary Issue of The Catholic Worker, the first issue of this newspaper having been published on May 1, 1933. Given the radical politics of The Catholic Worker, right from the very beginning, the May 1st date of its initial publication was undoubtedly intentional.
The Catholic Worker does not publish online, so my suggestion (if you'd like to have a "Catholic Moment," yourself - and I do recommend that) is to subscribe to the newspaper. The price is listed on the first page as "One Cent" per issue, but I'd send them something more, along with your request for a subscription. Here's the address: The Catholic Worker, 36 East First Street, New York, N.Y. 10003.
In that 93rd Anniversary Issue, on Page One, The Catholic Worker published two graphically striking essays by Peter Maurin, who was the co-founder, along with Dorothy Day, of The Catholic Worker Movement. One of those essays was titled, "The Age Of Reason." The other one was titled, "The Age Of Treason."
Since The Catholic Worker isn't reliably found online, I couldn't capture either of these graphically striking essays, as printed in the May, 2026 issue of the newspaper. What follows will have to do, this from an online collection of some of Peter Maurin's "Easy Essays."
The Age Of Treason
1. Pope Pius IX and Cardinal Newman consider liberalism, whether it be religious, philosophical, or economic, the greatest error of the nineteenth century.
2. Modern liberalism is the logical sequence of the so-called age of Enlightenment- the age of Voltaire, Rousseau, Thomas Paine- sometimes called the Age of Reason in opposition to the Age of Faith.
3. By sponsoring nationalism and capitalism modern liberals have given up the search for truth and have become paid propagandists.
4. Modern liberals have ceased to appeal to reason, and have chosen to appeal to prejudice.
5. So the Age of Reason has become the age of Treason, as Julien Benda points out in his book entitled: "The Treason Of The Intellectuals."
When you get more deeply into The Catholic Worker Movement, maybe you'll agree with me that we absolutely do need to have a "Catholic Worker" kind of "Catholic Moment," should we wish for any good things in our future.
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