It was a bad day for a funeral; name a day that isn’t. But this one came in a period of family turmoil in the middle of last month. My mother just admitted to a nursing home and exhibiting severe dementia; my father lost without her; and me at Day 6 in a ten-day course of antibiotics for a sinus infection that had knocked me flat for the first four days… . Continue Reading »
Playfully invoking the 1896 papal bull declaring Anglican orders “absolutely null and utterly void,” the English Catholic writer William Oddie has declared the third round of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission’s talks will be “utterly futile, an absolute and total waste of time.” … Continue Reading »
“Why do evangelicals love the Jews?” For years I’ve heard that question asked in various forms, albeit almost always indirectly. Sometimes it comes from Christians skeptical of Zionism; other times from appreciative but suspicious Jews. The underlying subtext, though, is almost always the same … Continue Reading »
R. Sargent Shriver, who died on Jan. 18, was the last of the classic American Catholic liberals. Advocate of racial justice when that took real courage; founding director of the Peace Corps and inspiration of a generation of Americans dedicated to serving the global poor; director of Lyndon Johnson’s well-intended if ill-conceived domestic War on Poverty; ambassador to France and vice-presidential candidate … Continue Reading »
The drama of Egypt’s revolution and the ongoing story of that nation’s transition to”it is hoped”a fair and democratic society, has rightly sucked out the oxygen that might have sustained a few other stories worthy of note. One such story broke last Tuesday in Indonesia, where an estimated 1500 Muslims … Continue Reading »
The March issue is here! And let me tell you, it is an emotional rollercoaster ride. The public square is a touching remembrance by James Nuechterlein of RJN and First Things on the occasion of the start of our twenty-second year of publication… . Continue Reading »
“I gave him exactly a year, and if I decide it’s not working I’ll leave,” said the young woman walking behind me, naming the day she would leave and indicating that she would just walk out without explaining. Talking loudly enough to be heard on a crowded sidewalk, speaking in a brisk hard voice, she listed her demands, which included feeling completely satisfied with the arrangement and a high degree of personal autonomy to pursue her own goals… . Continue Reading »
A young Catholic today inherits a long, long tradition of reflection on love that is unmatched in any other culture in the world, beginning with the sublime “Song of Songs” of the Jewish Testament, and the many sections of the Christian Testament dedicated to the theme… . Continue Reading »
So now that the NFL season has passed, leaving its customary trail of carnage behind, civilized followers of sport can turn their attention to the opening of spring training camps and the approach of that most glorious of the great terrestrial cycles, the baseball season. It was a satisfying Super Bowl for me, inasmuch as the Steelers lost … Continue Reading »
“Freud’s Last Session,” the off-Broadway play by Mark St. Germain, has become something of sleeper hit in recent months, playing to sold-out audiences and twice extending its performance calendar. Several celebrities have been spotted attending the play, including Woody Allen, who reportedly gave the play a standing ovation… . Continue Reading »
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