Two recent trips to two very different art exhibits provoked some gloomy thoughts about our times. Earlier in the fall, I visited New York City. An art-curator friend who has tried to warm me to contemporary art suggested a visit to the Leslie Tonkonow Gallery in Chelsea. Klaus Ottmann, a curator . . . . Continue Reading »
Speaking about the many people in the world who go hungry, Pope Benedict XVI says that we need "to eliminate the structural causes linked to the system of government of the world economy, which allocates the greater part of the planet’s resources to a minority of the population." . . . . Continue Reading »
Like Fr. Neuhaus , I too was taken with the article "I’m Not a Saint, Just a Parent" by Simon Barnes in the Times of London. It recalled to my mind a speech I gave several years ago to a medical school in which I urged the students to always look at their patients through the lens . . . . Continue Reading »
No one thought it possible, but there is a wave of nostalgia sweeping through the ranks of conservative Episcopalians for their old presiding bishop, Frank Griswold. Of course, he may well have been heretical, but no one could really tell for sure. His statements were a riddle wrapped in a mystery . . . . Continue Reading »
Here, with thanks to Amy Welborn, a reflection to lift the heart and confirm the will . The author, Simon Barnes, is chief sportswriter for the (UK) Times : "So Eddie was born, and I have spent the subsequent five years living with him. Not living with Down’s syndrome: what a ridiculous . . . . Continue Reading »
Of things to blog about, the world never ceases to supply a sufficiency¯and more than a sufficiency, which means that the folder of possible blog topics often overflows before one can get to it all. In fact, every once in a while, you simply to have to grab a bucket and start baling, before . . . . Continue Reading »
Last week I saw the final New York performance of a Twelfth Night now touring the United States, brought over by a British production company called Cheek by Jowl . This Twelfth Night is performed entirely in Russian by Russian performers, with Shakespeare’s English only as supertitles . . . . Continue Reading »
In case you missed it in print, the October First Things is now available online in its entirety at no charge (click here for the table of contents). Inside are correspondence on Gilbert Meilaender’s review of Crunchy Cons , "The Diplomacy of Religious Freedom," and lawsuits brought . . . . Continue Reading »
Reports that the South African Parliament has approved gay marriage, and that the U.S. Catholic bishops have reiterated Church teaching on the disordered nature of homosexual acts, once again recall the line about the real reason for the culture wars: "It’s the sex, stupid." Part . . . . Continue Reading »
There has been a lively discussion among the young folks in the office about the morality of going to see the hit movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan . I saw a couple of trailers for the film on television and admit that I laughed out loud before . . . . Continue Reading »
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