Those who claim that the Church has nothing to do except resist and condemn are mistaken; but they are less mistaken than those who think we should raise the gates and invite the enemy in. Continue Reading »
Unlike most other supporters of same-sex marriage, Douglas Laycock has spoken out in defense of Americans compelled to bake cakes or arrange flowers for same-sex weddings. This is cause to admire him, and to doubt his arguments. For he presents his own view of religious freedom as uncomplicated . . . . Continue Reading »
John Henry Newman joined the Catholic Church on October 9, 1845, after concluding that the via media of Anglo-Catholicism, which he had sought for years to vindicate, existed only in theory, a dream of dons. He had constructed a “paper religion”; his notion of the Church of England . . . . Continue Reading »
Last month I made a pilgrimage to St. Mary’s Church, the university church at Oxford, when I was visiting that ancient city of dreaming spires. Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer were tried and convicted there for Protestant heresy. But I did not have those men in mind. It was from the pulpit of St. . . . . Continue Reading »
We honor the memory of John Henry Newman, this newest of God’s saints, by imitating his courage, and the conviction that underwrote it. Continue Reading »
On October 13, Pope Francis will declare John Henry Newman a saint. Catholics from around the world will crowd St. Peter’s Square to see the greatest religious thinker of Victorian England raised to the altars. Amid the joy and apparent concord of that day, there will be at least two . . . . Continue Reading »