Matthew Schmitz

If the sincere exchange of vows doesn’t make their marriage valid, what does? Must all sacramentally valid marriages resemble my friends', beginning only after a few years of theological study, during a Mass set to music by Mozart? Continue Reading »

There are two groups of people who say that religious people are obliged to hate and kill gays: salafists and secular liberals. Neither recognizes the possibility of a faith premised on the love of sinners. Continue Reading »

Without holy fear, Christianity is reduced to courtesy. Continue Reading »

Donald Trump is a fool—not because he is wrong about so many things, but because he is right about a few others. The fool is not only one who speaks nonsense, but one who speaks sense on the topic no one else will touch. He is the court jester pointing out the king’s failings. Were any sane man . . . . Continue Reading »

Like Patrick Leigh Fermor did: with red eggs and firearms, alongside one's comrades. From Abducting a General, Fermor's account of his anti-Nazi resistance work in Crete:I got back to the hideout at last on April 16th, which was Orthodox Easter Sunday, the greatest feast of the Greek year . . . . . . . Continue Reading »

Knight of Cups is a masterpiece, Malick’s greatest and most moving film. Continue Reading »

As someone raised in the scripture-centered precincts of Evangelical Protestantism who later found his way to Rome, I am particularly susceptible to frustration and shame at the state of the Catholic bible. It's not just the use of terrible translations like the NAB that grates, but also the low . . . . Continue Reading »

O n a Saturday afternoon, I survey the offerings of the Bedford Cheese Shop. This gourmet store at the center of hip Brooklyn bills itself as being “based on old-world ideals with a loyalty to our family . . . dedicated to the time honored traditions of the culinary and agricultural world.” . . . . Continue Reading »

What Was Before by martin mosebach translated by kári driscoll seagull, 248 pages, $27.50A woman asks a man what his life had been like before they met, and he tells her of a glittering world now gone: A group of well-to-do Germans gathers for poolside parties in the countryside near Frankfurt, . . . . Continue Reading »

The strange case of Gloria Thurn and Taxis. Continue Reading »