At supper at Xavier Hall at the University of San Francisco last summer, I was talking with Father William Monihan, a man who knows as much about books as anyone I know and whose annual symposia at USF are so stimulating. Somehow, he had just come into contact with Eric Voegelin and was, as we … Read more
The managing editor of Catholicism in Crisis forwarded a letter addressed to me via his office from a gentleman in Canada. Terry Hall figured that perhaps Schall could “do” something with it. On what appears to be a photocopy, with no salutation, so the letter may be sent around elsewhere, the reader is informed that … Read more
On the way back to California from Washington, last summer, I decided to take a Greyhound at least part of the way. The bus went through lovely Western Maryland, to Cumberland of fond memories, up through Morgantown, the “Penn Alps,” to Clarksburg and Parkersburg in West Virginia, across the Ohio River to Athens in Ohio, … Read more
Russell Hittinger, whose father, grandfather, and other relatives are buried in Arlington Cemetery, had mentioned to Michael Jackson and Terry Hall a couple of months ago the existence, somewhere in the cemetery of a monument to Southern soldiers. I believe one of them even asked me to translate the Latin inscription on it. This is … Read more
Recently, with Terry Hall, Managing Editor of this very journal, I was in Arlington at the home of Michael Jackson—yes, the Michael Jackson, of Houston and Cockburn ’80 fame. Michael was telling us of the burden of bearing, in his very person, such a name. But he admitted one of the high points in his … Read more
In Trenton, not too long ago, not far from the State of New Jersey government buildings, by the Delaware River, I was in a lovely old stone church, beautiful inside, the oldest Catholic Church in that state, as its good Pastor, Msgr. Leonard Toomey told me. Sacred Heart, as I looked it up, dates from … Read more
Easter is the central mystery and feast of the Christian faith. Likewise, it is the only promise to mankind that, ultimately, means anything. The greatest, perhaps only service the Church can perform for each of us is to be sure we hear this message, this doctrine, as it is taught, not as some theologian, or … Read more
What is striking about scripture, often, I think, is its sense that what we have is first given to us. Isaiah, for instance, will say, “The Spirit of the Lord is given to me…” (61, 1). Paul will say to the Thessalonians, not merely that they should “think before they do anything” — which seems … Read more
Sometime in October, 1936, Msgr. Ronald Knox gave a sermon on St. Mary Magdalene, the traditional model of the contemplative life, in which he observed: The world… does not understand the love that waits, any more than the love that weeps. It is so impressed with the feeling that this and that needs doing here … Read more
Walking slowly down “M” Street in Georgetown in mid-November, in the latter stages of gout, even while the Bishops were meeting at the Washington Hilton, I noticed an odd headline in a USA Today automatic kiosk. It blared, “Church Says We Must Practice What It Preaches.” I checked this wording at the next kiosk too, … Read more
Last Christmas I celebrated midnight Mass at the lovely Poor Clares’ Convent in Aptos (California) with an old friend from the University of Santa Clara, Father Edward Warren, S. J. This convent is in the parish to which my brother Jerry and his dear family belong, so we usually attend Christmas Mass either at Resurrection … Read more
After he referred to St. Francis of Assisi and Social Darwinism in his eloquent address to the Democratic Convention in San Francisco, Governor Mario Cuomo was briefly interviewed by Larry King on KCBS. King remarked on the reference to St. Francis. Cuomo then went on to G.K. Chesterton’s comment that St. Francis may have been … Read more
The “Bay-To-Breakers” foot race in San Francisco was something I figured that I should not miss — watching it, that is. So I walked down to the Four Mile Marker just in-side Golden Gate Park, off the Stanyon Street corner on Kennedy Drive. The leading runners came by me about five minutes after I arrived … Read more
In a new collection of essays by the late (d. 1973) Professor Leo Strauss (Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy, University of Chicago Press), a very large part of the book is devoted not so much to Plato but to Judaism. This is not accidental, of course, because it delicately hints at the proper understanding of … Read more
In “The Wasteland,” T . S. Eliot wrote: There is not even silence in the mountain, But dry, sterile thunder without rain. Where we live, in large part, influences how we look at the natural phenomena which are so much an often unnoticed part of our daily lives — such things as wind, rain, floods, … Read more
Glancing through some current newspapers stacked haphazardly on a grand piano where I am currently living in San Francisco, I came across an article by a fellow clergyman in The Voice, from nearby Oakland (Feb. 27, 1984), which featured the following observation in boldface on page three: “The well-documented facts are that defense spending is … Read more
Sports hint at the relationship between God and creation Opening day at the Giants’ Candlestick park was the day after the Georgetown Hoyas won the NCAA basketball championship. Some kind soul had put on the Xavier Hall Bulletin Board for the taking a $5 bleacher ticket (Section 54, Row 14, Seat 1), five seats from … Read more
Father Cornelius Monacell is a Jesuit classmate of mine. He hails from Albion, New York, where he grew up with wonderful Abruzzi-style pasta every Sunday noon. I even had one of his dear cousins in one of my classes at Georgetown, though she was still an un-Americanized Monacell. “Monte” is one of my greatest benefactors. … Read more
In her short story, “The Deluge at Norderney,” Isak Dinesen told of a Cardinal Hamilcar von Sehestedt, who was an anomaly in those Protestant lands of Schleswig-Holstein. “The one remarkable thing about (the Cardinal’s) family,” we are amusingly told, was what they had stuck, through many trials, to the ancient Roman Catholic faith of the … Read more
At least five hierarchies (the German, US, Dutch, French, and Irish) have thought it advisable in the past year to make a statement on the morality of nuclear war and the issues surrounding it. Basil Cardinal Hume of London also wrote a very perceptive letter on this topic.’ The Irish statement was written after the … Read more