“Love Bade Me Welcome” a poem by George Herbert was set to music by Ralph Vaughn Williams as part of his “Five Mystical Songs” (1906-11). Both the poem and the song have the power to convert. The poem had a profound effect on the Jewish philosopher/mystic Simone Weil. The song has, more times than I can recall, … Read more
The Anchoress has written a beautiful piece for NPR: “Today, on Good Friday, Why I Am Still A Catholic.” When have darkness and light been anything but co-existent? How do we recognize either without the other? I remain within, and love, the Catholic Church because it is a church that has lived and wrestled … Read more
As Robert Reilly reminded us in this morning’s article, Holy Week is an incredibly rich time, both liturgically and musically. And for me, Good Friday is certainly the high/(low?)-water mark. For the last 15 years or so, I’ve tried to take the time to listen to one of the Bach Passions from beginning to end. Kids … Read more
At about this time last year, I bumped into a friend at the laundromat. My mind was occupied with loaded laundry baskets and grumblings about my broken washing machine, but all that left me the moment my eyes met hers. She was in pain. Her newborn granddaughter, she told me, was gone. There were many … Read more
Given the day, it didn’t seem quite right to go with the usual free-for-all round-up of news and offbeat links, so here instead are two Good Friday links — Cardinal Ruini’s meditations for the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum in Rome today, and Paul Robeson’s beautiful rendering of “Were You There.” Feel free … Read more
A friend in a nursing home left me this phone message at the beginning of Holy Week: “God came to us and we murdered Him, tortured Him to death, spat on Him. And now, all He asks of us is that we let Him forgive us. Some people won’t even do that. Isn’t that amazing? … Read more
Our friend John Barger, publisher of Sophia Press, asked me to let InsideCatholic.com readers know he is giving away free books! Click here for more information. I hope I don’t need to tell you that Sophia is one of the best Catholic publishers anywhere, and whether the books are free or not you should read … Read more
With the constant media barrage against the pope and the Church, we seem to be living our own Via Crucis this year. And even though I am celebrating Easter at home in Boston, I’m attuned to what is happening in Rome. Just before I left Rome last week, I offered the Vatican Radio commentary for Pope Benedict’s … Read more
Public art or public eyesore? The mayor of London — the host city for the 2012 Olympic games — has commissioned a tower for their Olympic Park meant to be their own “mini-Eiffel.” Some 400ft high – admittedly a little shy of the Paris landmark’s 1,063ft, but higher than the Statue of Liberty – the … Read more
The current issue of Our Sunday Visitor has a cover story on the new commission set up by the Vatican to investigate — and come to some conclusion over — the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje. The examination will fall under the authority of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — Pope Benedict’s former … Read more
It’s sad to watch the New York Times, Washington Post, MSNBC, and others attack Pope Benedict XVI. The story they have spun over the last week about his supposed mishandling of the case of abusive Milwaukee priest Rev. Joseph Murphy is risibly tenuous. These once-great newspapers trivialize themselves by publishing front-page stories making obvious their … Read more
Neal McDonough is one of those actors who has appeared in so many movies and TV shows that his face is almost immediately recognizable to anyone that has watched their fair share of either in the past 10 years. Check out this Minority Report still, for example. He’s not Tom Cruise. And he’s not Colin Farrell. But I … Read more
To wrap up Lent in my class, “Finding the Face of God in the 20th Century,” I decided to concentrate students’ minds with a chorus of De Profundis. For two solid weeks, we have worked our way through literature of the Holocaust: Eli Wiesel, Victor Frankl, and convert Roy Schoeman. And the timing seems fitting: … Read more
Following up on Margaret’s morning post… John Allen, Jr., senior correspondent with the National Catholic Reporter, senior Vatican analyst with CNN, and author of The Rise of Benedict XVI, answered questions yesterday at the Washington Post about the pope and the ongoing sex abuse crisis. It’s a short read and Allen is typically fair … Read more
Challenges to the New York Times piece on the abuse scandal in Milwaukee keep on coming, and they damage is piling up. The latest comes from a priest who directly oversaw the case against Father Lawrence Murphy, though he was never contacted by the Times for comment. Now, he says, he wants to set the … Read more
It is an honor, of sorts, to have one’s Lenten penances externally imposed, and the whole Church has shared in this honor this year. Led by an ignorant and malicious attack in the New York Times, the liberal media internationally have been doing everything in their power to pin something — anything — on Pope … Read more
Over the last year or so, I’ve discovered that one of the biggest problems with not blogging on something “as soon as the idea strikes me/while the iron is hot” is that I can’t always remember where I found the story in the first place. (Of course, I have trouble remembering what happened 5 minutes ago, … Read more
Hubble images: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1ivSpc/coolvibe.com/2009/100-epic-images-from-hubble-space-telescope/ Sistine Chapel: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1kpcQm/www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html
You’ll recall the law recently passed in Baltimore requiring crisis pregnancy centers to advertise that they don’t provide birth control or abortions (thanks to some prodding of the city council by Planned Parenthood). The archdiocese, however, isn’t taking the ruling lying down: Archbishop Edwin O’Brien announced yesterday that they are suing the city of Baltimore, … Read more
A new wrinkle has emerged in the beatification process for the late-John Paul II: The sudden healing of a French nun suffering from Parkinson’s disease may not have been a miracle at all. [A] Polish newspaper recently reported that doubts had been cast about whether the nun might not have had Parkinson’s at all. … Read more