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
Despite the fact that the United States Catholic Conference has taken dozens, even hundreds, of positions on public policy issues in the name of the American bishops over the past decade, on only two occasions has the media paid much attention: to the pastoral letter, “The Challenge of Peace,” and to the recent statement disavowing … 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
The implications are as great as at any time since deterrence was developed in the 1950s. One of the curiosities of the current presidential campaign is that it has yet to catch fire (do pardon the expression) around the issue of nuclear weapons and nuclear strategy. The democrats profess faith in the freeze, and disbelief … 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
“Tradition is the democracy of the dead” — G. K. Chesterton This sermon, long attributed to St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople (d. 407), and now traced by some scholars to an older tradition coming from St. Hippolytus (d. 235), has long been read in the Orthodox Midnight Easter Liturgy. This month Christians commemorate the … Read more
New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, a scion of the Gilded Age, is not ordinarily remembered in American history as a moral philosopher. But his gloss on a more-famous critique if patriotism is worth recalling: “When Dr. Johnson said that ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel,’ he overlooked the possibilities of Reform.” Conkling’s complaint, … 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
“In Christianity, however, the human soul is not the seeker but the sought,” C. S. Lewis wrote in his Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. “It is God who seeks, who descends from the other world to find and heal man.” Sometimes we have a picture of the world in which each of us works … Read more
In view of the evidence of continuing controversy in Congress, the academic community, and in the structure of public opinion, it is strikingly odd that Justice Powell insists so strongly in his recent opinion for the Court in Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health that the “basic principle that a woman has a fundamental … Read more
REPRINT FROM WALL STREET JOURNAL, NOV. 25, 1983 A plenary session of the Catholic bishops of France recently issued a document on the issue of nuclear arms and defense, titled “Win the Peace.” The vote in support of the document was 93-2. Excerpts follow: Because the survival of humanity is at stake, there is no … Read more