In his autobiographical account of his youth and his conversion to the faith, Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis relates the almost inexplicable mingling of joy and sorrow he felt when he first read of the Norse myth of Balder, the handsome and large-hearted god who was slain by a trick practiced upon him by … Read more
ZENIT has published an interview with the long-time (and now-retired) director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, the recently elevated Domenico Cardinal Bartolucci. A brief journey through the Interwebs reveals the 93-year-old composer to be a feisty advocate for sacred music, particularly the “classics.” In this interview, he reveals his belief that “for sacred music, the … Read more
The philosophical map has altered. We live in a world wholly different from the world known by C. S. Lewis, or by John Henry Newman before him, or by Francis Bacon in the Renaissance or Robert Grosseteste in the Middle Ages. Whether we wish to locate the wellspring of this latter change in the eighteenth … Read more
I’m only just now reading through the full account of the charges being brought against Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who was arrested yesterday and charged with eight counts of murder. It is painful, stomach-churning stuff. As the district attorney’s office put it, “Pennsylvania is not a Third World country” — and yet this man was … Read more
Former Planned Parenthood director and new author Abby Johnson (see the banner ad for Unplanned to the right) is in the process of entering the Catholic Church. “When we went to the Catholic Church for the first time we knew that was where we were supposed to be and we have been there ever since,” … Read more
A new story from the Creative Minority Report says that CCHD director Ralph McCloud worked as treasurer for a pro-abortion politician during his first year at the USCCB. Ralph McCloud was named head of the CCHD in November 2007. In his first year as head of the CCHD, according to public records, McCloud also worked as … Read more
During February, the Eighth Army realized that local German advances in Tunisia signaled that no jejeune horoscope could be trusted. Rommel’s progress and the shock of the Battle of the Kasserine Pass were sobering to Allied forces, especially the newly minted American troops. The Nazis had a new dose of adrenalin, and Joseph Goebbels declared … Read more
With the March for Life just around the corner, it’s hard not to be aware of the cultural contradictions inherent in our attitudes toward life, specifically unborn life. Ross Douthat calls it the Unborn Paradox, pointing to the high rate of abortion on one hand and the unprecedented number of couples coping with infertility on … Read more
We use so many metaphors for the Church: the Mystical Body of Christ, the People of God, the Ark of Salvation, the Bride of Christ. It’s all too easy for these vivid, poetic images to vanish from our minds, or ring bitterly hollow, when our confidence is shaken a bit by crises in our lives … Read more
Sargent Shriver, brother-in-law of John, Bobby, and Ted Kennedy, founding director of the Peace Corps, and one-time Democratic vice-presidential nominee (among numerous other accomplishments), passed away this week. I only met him once in person, but we exchanged phone calls and a series of letters regarding our shared interest in Catholic history, and I came to … Read more
Rabbi Dov Fischer of Young Israel of Orange County is tired of hearing the Tucson rampage blamed on anti-Semitism. Jared Lee Loughner is a nut. He has earned by dint of his own merit the privilege of being deemed a 100% crackpot. Yes, he may have had an interface with a hate group whose name … Read more
You might have seen the New York Times article yesterday that made a serious claim about the Vatican’s response to the abuse scandal in Ireland — namely, according to its original title, that it “warned bishops not to report child abuse.” That incendiary title seems to have been changed today, but the charge is largely … Read more
Catholics once had an intuitive understanding of sacred space: To enter a church, especially in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, was to enter a different kind of environment, one of the hallmarks of which was a reverent silence. Some of that intuition remains. But much of it has been lost. Thus, within the past … Read more
In one of the two greatest lines of world poetry, Dante bows gently toward “The Love that moves the sun and all the stars.” Many moralists speak of love as the one fundamental and universal moral principle, the golden rule honored in all traditions. But what do we mean by love? In English we are … Read more
Last year I blogged about the film Des Hommes et des Dieux, the story of the Trappist monks of Tibhirine who were murdered during the 1996 Algerian civil war. CNA now reports that one of the survivors of the attack on the monastery, Brother Jean Pierre Schumacher, gave an interview with the Spanish weekly Alfa … Read more
Nicole Kidman and her country music star husband, Keith Urban, welcomed a second child into their family last month. If you didn’t know she was pregnant, don’t worry — she wasn’t. Nor did she and her husband adopt. Here’s the statement they released to TMZ: Our family is truly blessed, and just so thankful, to … Read more
When it comes to the death penalty, the Church teaches: Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, nonlethal … Read more
Is neoconservative icon Bill Kristol coming around on the idea of returning to the gold standard? In response to Chinese President Hu Jintao’s recent comment that “the current international currency system is the product of the past,” Kristol writes: Isn’t Hu in this one respect right? And does the current international currency system of fiat … Read more
The author of a new book on Galileo claims that the scientist’s greatest contribution to theoretical physics came about, ironically enough, from thinking about the dimensions of Dante’s hell: In 1588, when Galileo was a 24-year-old unknown, a medical school dropout, he was invited to deliver a couple of lectures on Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” Many … Read more
On April 12,1963 — Good Friday — Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led a group of about 50 anti-segregation protesters into downtown Birmingham, Alabama. It was a peaceful protest, but they were not naïve: They knew that their message would offend and cause problems. King was not surprised when they were all arrested. Eight white … Read more