If the conclave of 2005 was about continuity”extending the legacy of John Paul II by electing his closest theological advisor as his successor”the conclave of 2013 was about governance. The College of Cardinals came to Rome convinced that the incapacities of the Roman Curia over the previous eight years had become a serious obstacle to the Church’s evangelical mission … Continue Reading »
George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, as has often been pointed out, imagined two very different dystopias. In 1984, written just after the Second World War, Orwell depicts the forces that held people captive as fundamentally external: coercion, espionage, laws, constraints, threats, lies, the state. By contrast, Huxley’s Brave New World, published just after the Wall Street crash had turned the excess of the twenties into the Great Depression of the thirties, portrays a future in which people are enslaved to forces within themselves … Continue Reading »
Last Tuesday’s March for Marriage contained many of the standard elements for a socially conservative protest march. There were young families pushing strollers, some Catholic parishes that rented buses, youthful nuns praying. In short, it was easy to view as a smaller scale version of the March for Life. But one thing was conspicuous about the participants: It was a majority-minority group… . Continue Reading »
Michael Voris’ “FBI (Faith Based Investigation) into Homosexuality,” a 94-minute video he recently released on his website ChurchMilitant.tv, was not easy for me to watch. It is harder for me to review. I’m tempted to rip into its bloody meat and leave behind a mangled carcass as a warning to others who might desire to make something similar. To do so, however, would be to misunderstand what Voris’ presentation is … Continue Reading »
She was called a “messenger of the love of Christ,” awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and beatified by the Holy See. But for most people, she is simply Mother Teresa, one of the most admired women of modern times. Born as Agnes Bojaxhiu in Macedonia in 1910, Blessed Teresa came to public attention relatively late in life, but when she did, her impact was profound … Continue Reading »
Stopping by my local Barnes & Noble store several years ago, I counted ninety-two Amish romance novels. My local Christian bookstore had sixty-six. More formal research for my book about Amish romance fiction confirmed what my bookstore visits first suggested: The sales of Amish-themed romance novels are as brisk as an Amish buggy is slow… . Continue Reading »
Benedict knelt in prayer before the Shroud of Turin, then spoke on the mystery of Holy Saturday, of which he saw the Shroud to be an icon. The meaning of Holy Saturday is perhaps especially dear to Benedict—between having been born and baptized on Holy Saturday of 1927, and having collaborated so closely with Hans Urs von Balthasar, whose theological imagination was certainly captured by the same mystery… . Continue Reading »
For Judah, the exile to Babylon is a national death. Once Judah had a king, but now he’s a prisoner in Babylon. Once Judah possessed a land, but now it’s depopulated. Once there was a temple in Jerusalem, but Nebuchadnezzar roared through and left charred ruins behind. Everything that made Judah a nation”king, temple, people, palace, power”is gone… . Continue Reading »
In “Courting Cowardice,” published this week in the New York Times, Maureen Dowd attacks the natural law argument that since marriage is for procreation, homosexual couples are de facto incapable of being married. She does this by offering several counterexamples echoing those given by members of the Supreme Court this week. … Continue Reading »
This morning, Pope Francis presided over his first pontifical Mass inside St. Peter’s Basilica. Previous Masses have been said outdoors beneath the basilica’s sagrato. The Chrism Mass was concelebrated with the cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and secular and religious priests present in Rome. During the Mass, the clerics renewed their vows and the oils of the sick and the catechumens as well as the chrism oil itself were blessed… . Continue Reading »
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