Jesus is not optional
Sometimes I decide what I’m going to write about. And sometimes God does. I just came back from the FOCUS conference in Phoenix. It was awesome, incidentally, and I highly […]
perspective
perspective
The Two Popes: Baloney, brilliantly acted
I first met Pope Emeritus Benedict in June 1988; over the next three decades, I’ve enjoyed many lengthy conversations and interviews with him, including a bracing discussion covering many topics […]
perspective
The Reformation: Why it matters and how you can learn more about it
It is hard to think of an event that shaped the modern world more than the Reformation. Not only did it split the Church in Western Europe, it also split […]
perspective
The Martini Curve revisited
Pope Francis concluded his pre-Christmas address to the Roman Curia by invoking the memory of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, SJ, who died in September 2012. The Holy Father recalled that, […]
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The One Pope
The new and much-ballyhooed Netflix film The Two Popes should, by rights, be called The One Pope, for it presents a fairly nuanced, textured, and sympathetic portrait of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) […]
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New Year’s Resolutions for Concerned Catholics: A Few Suggestions
During and after the grim martial law period in the early 1980s, many freedom-minded Poles would greet each other on January 1 with a sardonic wish: “May the new year […]
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Christmas, freedom, and obedience
On December 17, the day the first “O Antiphon” signaled the intensification of preparations for Christmas, the Church read the genealogy of Jesus from Matthew’s gospel: writing for a predominantly […]
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The well-fought fight
The incorporation of Anglican hymnody into English-language Catholic worship is one of the great blessings of the past 50 years. And within that noble musical patrimony, Ralph Vaughan Williams surely […]
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Of St. Nick and Christmas trees
On Dec. 6, the Church celebrated the patron saint of children, St. Nicholas (270 – 343 A.D.), bishop of Myra in Asia Minor (present day Turkey). This saint became associated […]
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A shortcut out of purgatory
I know, I write about death a lot. I would write about it even more if I didn’t force myself to look elsewhere for topics periodically. But there is a […]
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Waiting and watching for Christ’s arrival
“As we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” These words from the liturgy perfectly summarize the spiritual disposition we should cultivate during Advent. Similar […]
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Books for Christmas 2019
Resist the twitterization of thought — give books for Christmas! The following titles will delight, instruct, edify (or all of the above): Churchill: Walking with Destiny, by Andrew Roberts (Viking): […]
