Our Father is not, according to Jesus, merely our Father. He is our Father “who art in heaven.” What does that mean? Â Getting at the answer to that in our present culture is harder than you’d think, not least because heaven, says C. S. Lewis, is an acquired taste. There are moments, he writes, … Read more
My first conversation with Archbishop Charles J. Chaput happened over dinner at a mom-and-pop Chinese restaurant in South Dakota in late 1990. He was the bishop of Rapid City; I was working for Catholic Answers and had been invited to conduct a weekend apologetics conference there. From that first meeting, I could tell immediately that … Read more
“It’s a myth to say our health care system is broken — it is the best in the world.” That politically incorrect assertion comes from a man with more than 25 years of experience working for one of the nation’s largest health insurance companies. “When the wealthy and powerful from all over the world choose … Read more
This past Sunday, as I attempted to get my wriggling, squeaking, squirming children settled in our pew for what usually amounts to a liturgical rodeo — see if you can keep them on their best behavior for eight seconds without getting thrown out of the church — I noticed the arrival of two women in … Read more
God Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, Penguin Press, 416 pages, $27.95 Â It was a commonplace of the late 1960s that religion was obsolete and that modern 20th-century people had no need of faith. “Is God Dead?” Time asked in 1966, and books … Read more
“My obituary will now begin with the Valerie Plame story,” Bob Novak said with a wry smile. We were having breakfast at the Army-Navy Club in Washington, D.C., a year after the media furor began over his column identifying Plame as a CIA operative. Novak, of course, was right: On the day he died, the … Read more
We all know the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the Temple (Lk 18:9-14). “But then the tax collector, aware of his own deep humility, looked upon the Pharisee and said: Lord, I thank thee that I am not such as this man, who fasts and prays and gives alms unto the … Read more
I have a couple of friends who live in an Ontario swamp — by choice, surrounded by nature at its most intense, at least at this latitude. It is cool and comfortable in there during the summer. No mosquito problem, for instance: The frogs, fish, and birds that flourish over, around, and under their house … Read more
Boredom during the liturgy is something all Catholics have felt from time to time, and it’s never justifiable. No matter how mundane the architecture, how dull the homily, or how bad the music, what’s taking place on the altar is a miraculous sacrifice that gives us the grace for salvation. That reality should be … Read more
In Luke’s Gospel, the “Our Father,” like so much else in Jesus’ teaching, is occasioned by a request from His disciples: “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples” (Lk 11:1). This should get our attention, because it is typical of Jesus’ method of revelation that, instead of going around announcing, “Hey! I’m … Read more
Is Pope Benedict XVI an admirer of the seamless garment? Evidently he is, and at first sight that’s bad news for conservative Catholics. But hold on: The good news is that he understands seamless-garment thinking in a way that ought to lead conservatives to admire it, too. To be sure, in his new economic encyclical … Read more
The newly launched USCCB Web site on health care tackles the question: “Are the bishops promoting socialized medicine by advocating for universal access?” That’s a good question, since the prospect of a government takeover of health care has created a growing chorus of complaints about the present bills before the Congress.The bishops’ answer to the … Read more
The best religious films, and therefore the best Catholic films, convey the great truths of Christianity implicitly rather than explicitly, not unlike the mystery of incarnation itself, in which the Word became flesh in the person of an obscure carpenter from a hick town in a minor province. In addition, this list consists … Read more
I am such a Neanderthal.  Case in point: One recent day, I was furiously scrubbing the bathtub when my husband Dan peeked into the bathroom doorway.  “Hey, as long as you’re doing that,” he said, “The toilet in there is looking . . . um . . . really, really gross.”  Yes, … Read more
The tagline for the critically acclaimed AMC series Mad Men, which recently received 16 Emmy nominations and whose third season premieres on Sunday, is “Where the Truth Lies.” Set in the early 1960s, the series entwines the world of advertising, with its manipulation of images to evoke a sense of accomplishment and happiness, with ordinary … Read more
As the most immaterial art, music is often thought to be the most spiritual. By its nature, is music sacred? If so, what is sacred about it? These might seem strange questions to ask in a secular age, but the presumption that there is something special about music pervades even our culture.Consider the poster on … Read more
If ever there were a time when Catholics should not trust the United States government, it is now. The president, his administration, and the congressional leadership are removing all the abortion restrictions put in place since Roe v. Wade. And yet, the bishops are backing a proposal to give the federal government complete control … Read more
As I begin to rummage through the files I have from 1942, I notice a pastoral letter of Msgr. Sigismund Waitz, prince archbishop of Salzburg, read in all his churches on October 19, 1941, but only published in London in July 1942. Archbishop Waitz, along with other prominent Austrian clerics such as the Jesuit Rev. … Read more
This virtue business is a puzzler. If picking up the tab for a raging alcoholic, or keeping one’s gambling-addict grandma in bingo cards, doesn’t add up to Liberality, what does? Isn’t the New Testament full of admonitions like “Give till it hurts,” and “It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?” Â It’s … Read more
Reason speaks in words alone, but love has a song. Joseph de Maistre We live in an age of confusion. It might even be said that we major not only in intellectual confusions but in affective confusions as well. Many do not know how to gauge their emotions; they cannot distinguish between valid and invalid … Read more