Father Augustin Escobar, associate pastor at St. Norbert’s Church in Orange, California, invited a Presbyterian minister to concelebrate Mass, partake of the Holy Eucharist, and distribute the sacrament to the faithful. Bishop Tod Brown of the Diocese of Orange, California put Father Escobar on leave while an investigation ensues… . Continue Reading »
On this President’s Day, we offer selections from three articles we’ve published on Abraham Lincoln, all dealing in some way with his attempts to balance principle with practice, or rather to achieve his principles by understanding the situation, including the limits and restraints, in which he had to act, and acting accordingly. The value of his example is obvious… . Continue Reading »
John Henry Newman, Oxford scholar and famous English convert to Catholicism (1801“1890), whose birthday we celebrate today, is acknowledged by most for his English prose, his lofty ideas on university education and his writings on development of Christian doctrine. We often put Newman forward as an example for the Catholic intellectual but rarely consider what he has to say to the average person striving to live a Christian life in a secular world… . Continue Reading »
An interesting and significant online discussions between Hadley Arkes and Matthew O’Brien on the content of moral judgment has recently played out in the pages of Public Discourse. What made this exchange so remarkable was that O’Brien and Arkes are in close agreement on the great moral issues of our day”both recognize the evils of abortion and racism, for example… . Continue Reading »
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 »
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