Over the past two weeks, protestors around Egypt have been breaking into State Security Agency offices and carrying out documents they fear will be destroyed by government operatives. The records have already produced a few bombshells, but this tops the list: Perhaps the most controversial document to surface was one that purports to lay out … Read more
Time for a few Friday links: John Allen on Pope Benedict’s latest book: “It’s likely to cement the impression that Benedict XVI is his own best spokesperson.” Diary of a Part Time Monk: A man decides to fast on doppelbock beer (“liquid bread”) and water for the whole of Lent — just like monks used … Read more
All of the Founding Fathers were married, and most of them had children. What do the stories of the wives and families of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison tell us about the personality and character of these great Americans? In his latest book, Thomas Fleming superbly answers … Read more
I read an interesting article in Time today about Germany and the economic powerhouse it has become. Their exports are high, unemployment is down to 6.9% and their GDP rose 3.6% in 2010. They have recovered from the economic recession that swallowed Europe and their future is bright. What bothered me in the article was the view … Read more
In 1776, at the time of the Declaration of Independence, there were no more than twenty-five thousand Catholics in all of the thirteen colonies, mostly located in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York — 1 percent of the two-and-a-half-million total population. There were only twenty-three priests in all, and the next highest authority was the … Read more
In a Chicago Sun-Times opinion piece this morning, Reason magazine’s Jacob Sullum says the Democrats aren’t serious about the national debt. Nothing surprising about that, but he concludes with this beauty: Picking up the president’s investment theme, The New York Times says it’s “obfuscating nonsense” to declare that “we’re broke,” as House Speaker John Boehner … Read more
Long before I became a Catholic at age 34, I opposed abortion. I came to this position on the basis of reason alone — as an Evangelical I had not been schooled on this issue. Evangelicals, by the way, did not start their anti-abortion activism until the 80s, taking over leadership from Catholics like Dr. … Read more
After two months of deliberation, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D) has signed legislation to abolish the death penalty in that state: Quinn called this the hardest decision he has had to make as governor, but one he felt was required. “If the system can’t be guaranteed 100 percent error-free, then we shouldn’t have the system,” … Read more
About a week ago, I was making the case for Catholicism to a college freshman when a friend of mine set a guy on fire. He didn’t mean to! But they were making a really potent alcoholic drink in a loving-cup, trying to float grain alcohol on top so they could flambé it. I’ve seen … Read more
Ash Wednesday as a solemn day of penance must take on new meaning for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia today: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Tuesday that it had suspended 21 priests from active ministry in connection with accusations that involved sexual abuse or otherwise inappropriate behavior with minors. The mass suspension was the single-most sweeping … Read more
I’m starting off Lent this year not in the desert but in my own Jerusalem, New York City — city of temples and towers, titans and toilers, Rev. George Rutler and the Rockettes. It is here you’ll find the best and the worst man has to offer, the supremely serious and the sublimely silly. Here … Read more
AOL News ran a piece yesterday by Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood director who wrote the recently released unPlanned. In the column, she outlined the ways Congress and the American public have been misled by Planned Parenthood over the years. Johnson would be in a position to know since she worked eight years for … Read more
Russian Federation president Dmitri Medvedev’s recent visit to the Vatican, which included an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, is being trumpeted in some quarters as further evidence of a dramatic breakthrough in relations between the Holy See and Russia, and between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church. While I wish that were the … Read more
Over at the National Catholic Reporter blog, John Allen has an intriguing discussion of There Be Dragons, Roland Joffé’s upcoming film about the life of St. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei. From a journalistic point of view, it’s tempting to style “There Be Dragons” as a sort of anti-Da Vinci Code – a pop culture portrayal of Opus … Read more
Today, Gaudium et spes must be read in the light of Centesimus annus and other writings of the late-Pope John Paul II. These remain, by far, the most concrete, sophisticated, and accurate descriptions of the contemporary world. They are rooted in a thoroughly contemporary grasp of the philosophy and theology of the human person, community, … Read more
An article in the Wall Street Journal examines the debate over whether parents should let children drink alcohol at home. Not surprisingly, both parents and experts differ. According to a 2009 survey, 86 percent of American youths have used alcohol by the age of 21. (This number actually seems a little low to me.) The … Read more
A recent CDC study found that the number of 15 to 24 year olds who reported being virgins in 2008 had increased slightly since 2002. In his latest column, Ross Douthat sees in that trend a reason for optimism — not because he thinks we’ll ever really see an end to premarital sex, but because … Read more
As I suppose everybody does when they reflect about their life, I sometimes sit back and think about the astonishing chain of little choices that have contributed to the fact that I exist. One evening about 30 years ago, for instance, I was stopped at a red light and the radio in the car was … Read more
Every once in a while I pull out of its shelf my worn copy of Milton’s poetical works. What can one say? To embark on any given line of Milton is to find oneself in a thunderous domain where language becomes the very avatar of bliss. Paradise Lost is, of course, Milton’s crowning achievement, with … Read more
C. S. Lewis is big business these days, but is the new “Lewis Bible” taking things a bit too far? The Lewis Bible, available in cloth (18,000 copies sold since its November debut) or leather (6,000), shares a recycling genre with “A Year with C. S. Lewis,” a collection of 365 Lewis readings, which since … Read more