Coming home from our two day visit with my son, Owen and his lovely wife, Margaret, tired of driving on the Pennsylvania turnpike, my husband and I stopped at a rest area. As I came out of the ladies’ room, I saw said husband, Tom, in the Starbucks line. He never wants to stop at Starbucks, . . . . Continue Reading »
William Doino Jr. on Pope Benedict’s greatest lesson : However history remembers Pope Benedict, one thing is assured: his reign will be remembered as one of the great teaching pontificates. Even those who question other aspects of it, praise it for that. “Where the Church has emerged . . . . Continue Reading »
1. Had I known my RIP piece below would attract attention, I surely would have made it better or at least clearer. 2. It goes without saying that I agree with Pete’s center-right agenda below, with its mend them, don’t end them approach to our minimalist entitlements and its due concern . . . . Continue Reading »
Today, February 18, some Christian communities celebrate the feast of the great reformer Martin Luther. If we are to take Pope Benedict as our guide (Luther might warn us against this) even we Catholic Christians can consider it a day worth celebrating. In a 2011 address to Lutheran leaders in . . . . Continue Reading »
One question that has always surrounded Benedict’s tenure as pope has been that of the sex-abuse scandals. In their assessment of his papacy, even otherwise friendly commentators, such as Ross Douthat, have said that he did not do enough to combat abuse, punish wrong-doers, and console . . . . Continue Reading »
Recently a friend introduced me to the Orlando di Lasso motet “Tristis Est Anima Mea,” a beautiful piece that captures in words and music the quiet, expectant sorrow of Lent and the coming sacrifice in which Christ is handed over to sinners for the salvation of sinners. The words are . . . . Continue Reading »
Ross Douthat writes about the decline of “the Catholic vision of the good society — more egalitarian than American conservatism and more moralistic than American liberalism.” Everything he says is true as far as I can tell, and yet I think there is plenty of room for a politics . . . . Continue Reading »
1. Muskrat Catholics living south of Detroit enjoy a longstanding informal dispensation to eat muskrat (the local pronunciation is MUSH-rat) on Fridays of Lent. A 2002 document from the Archdiocese of Detroit confirmed that “there is a long-standing permission—-dating back to our missionary . . . . Continue Reading »
Readers be forewarned: this is a very long blog post. About a week ago in this space, I criticized Grant Gallicho for saying, at the dotCommonweal blog, that the Obama administration’s recent “accommodation” of religious nonprofits under its HHS contraception mandate ought to satisfy . . . . Continue Reading »
The always astute Mr. Douthat preaches the eulogy here . This, of course, is bad news for FIRST THINGS, seeing as the brand “Catholic moment” was coined by Father Neuhaus. And it’s a brand I’ve always believed in trying to restore or inaugurate the idea of indigenous . . . . Continue Reading »
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