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Theology in Division

Level with me—you’re Catholic, right? I get this question a lot—from students, folks at church, academic colleagues. I teach theology at a Stone–Campbellite university in west Texas. My friends and neighbors are, almost to a person, low-church believers, whether restorationist or . . . . Continue Reading »

Crimes in the Name of Freedom

Of the several monks who taught us English, Father Allen was the easiest to relate to. Father P. was ­obviously gay—we used different terms in those days—which ­created a certain unease among boys during adolescence. As for Father G., though he was just a few years older than we were, . . . . Continue Reading »

A Matter of Holiness

There can be no lasting concordat, no real peace treaty, between a genuinely holy people and Church on the one hand, and a world of material excess, destructive sexuality, exploitation of the poor, and industrial-scale homicide of unborn children on the other.    Continue Reading »

From Anglican to Catholic

On September 29 last year, the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, I was received into the Ordina­riate of the Catholic Church, which was established for Anglicans who desire full communion with the See of Peter, at Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Gregory Church in London. Since then, I have . . . . Continue Reading »

On the Threshold: Part II

It was at this point, at the very end of the Church year, inspired by a tremulous confidence and the irresistible attraction of first love, that I established the habit of going to daily Mass. Every day at noon when the bells of St. Mary’s were ringing out the Angelus over New Haven, I drove into . . . . Continue Reading »

Tradismatic Trentecostalism

Steubenville, Ohio, home to Franciscan University, is a small city on the banks of the Ohio River linking the Buckeye State with Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Like much of the Rust Belt, Steubenville has seen better days. But coinciding with economic downturn has been a spiritual renewal that . . . . Continue Reading »

The Pope We All Need

A vignette from Victorian England offers a good starting point for thinking about the current state of the Western civilizational project. The place: the village of Olton in England’s West Midlands. The date: October 2, 1873. The occasion: the dedication of a new Catholic seminary, St. . . . . Continue Reading »

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