Recently a reader at my blog asked me what it would take for me to call “heresy” on someone else. Apparently, to refuse to lightly j’accuse is to be continually vomited out of Jesus’ mouth in a lukewarm stream, but I may find redemption if only I will carp endlessly about how the world is ending and the church is dying, and lay the fault for it at the feet of the bishops and possibly of me, myself… . Continue Reading »
Michele Bachmann was once committed to bigotry. Or so claims The Atlantic’s Joshua Green in what seems to be an attempt at the classic “gotcha” article. (Republicans had attacked Barack Obama for his pastor’s rants, and now one of their own has been embarrassed by her religion.) Green doesn’t get her, but she still needs to explain herself, because even the finer points of a candidate’s theology matter, though even religious politicans don’t want to admit it. … Continue Reading »
As a convert to Roman Catholicism from old Prayer Book and High Church Anglicanism, I resolved to tolerate the current translation of the Novus Ordo (the Latin Mass as revised after Vatican II) because it was the Church’s, not because it was edifying or beautiful. After recently translating the Ordo Missae for use at Christ the King Chapel at Franciscan University of Steubenville, I have become convinced that the Novus Ordo contains much that is beautiful and edifying… . Continue Reading »
Thank you for asking me to speak this evening in support of the Love and Fidelity Network and Grupo Solido. I so admire the young people who have poured their hearts into this work, which is so important to the future of our two countries, and to the health of truly human culture everywhere. I am, I fear, a poor spokesman for the cause to which we are devoted here. By training and experience I am a political scientist, studying laws and institutions, courts and legislatures, political theories and constitutional frameworks… . Continue Reading »
The basis of Catholic social doctrine is quite straightforward. Speaking to Caritas International earlier this year, Raniero Cantalamessa said that “Christianity doesn’t begin by telling people what they must do, but what God has done for them. Gift comes before duty.” In other words, our love for God and our love for neighbor begin as responses to love we’ve already received… . Continue Reading »
The euthanasia movement in our country is gaining strength and momentum. The reasons for this are complicated, but at its root, this movement is driven by fears that many of us share. The fear of pain, suffering, and death. The fear that one day we might lose our mental capacity or bodily functions. The fear of becoming a burden on others. Or of being left alone to die in some institution, hooked up to expensive machines… . Continue Reading »
If you haven’t already done so, add this regulation to your rules for living: Never take sex advice from a man who licks doorknobs. The reasoning”as if a reason needed to be given”is that a man who doesn’t understand the telos of a doorknob isn’t likely to understand the telos of sex. Unfortunately, many people seem to disagree with me, which is why Dan Savage has become one of the most influential sex-advice columnists in America… . Continue Reading »
Whatever its other accomplishments, Henry Kissinger’s new book, On China, ought to cause serious reconsideration of that now-familiar refrain, “China-is-the-lead-country-of-the-future.” Kissinger’s analysis of Chinese history has been criticized, as has his reticence about evils like the massacres at Tiananmen Square. But his conclusion”that China’s future depends on the resolution of the conflict between those of its leaders who want to maintain totalitarian political control at all costs and those who want to complete the country’s remarkable economic development with a genuine opening toward democratic governance”strikes me as a fair summary of the situation… . Continue Reading »
Let me begin this column with a disclaimer: I am not a big fan of Sarah Palin. The reason I know this is because any time I write anything either mildly or constructively critical of the woman, I get scores of emails excoriating me as a “Palin-hater from the get-go”, from people who are completely aware that I not only predicted her invite to the McCain ticket, but applauded it, too. But the reason I must make the disclaimer is to head-off those who truly do hate Palin and try to disguise their hate in concerns over how she dresses. These are the people who dismiss any defense of her as mindless wingnuttery… . Continue Reading »
Those of a certain age will remember Love Story, the best-selling weeper novel of the late sixties written by Erich Segal, a classics professor at Yale who spent a sabbatical at Harvard, the setting for the novel. The book was later adapted for a hit movie starring Ali McGraw as the Radcliffe College tragic heroine and Ryan O’ Neill as her lover at Harvard. … Continue Reading »
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