 I joked in a previous column that the vice of Avarice was associated with one political party, and Envy with another. Were that entirely true, we could say that the recent election marked a new era in vice — one where Greed is no longer good, but Envy’s exquisite.  These questions are never … Read more
 Adolf Hitler aspired to be a painter, and he became a tyrant. As a painter he was mediocre, but his understanding of art’s power was second to none. Hitler knew that conquering Europe would require more than war; it would call for a complete domination of the culture, especially its art and architecture.  … Read more
On May 5, 2007, I resigned as president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), and two days later I resigned my membership, one I held for more than 20 years. I did so because I quickly realized — after news of my April 29, 2007, public reception into the Catholic Church had spread like wildfire … Read more
The newest Bond pic borrows too much from that other spy franchise. Â Â When you get older, fellow agent Rene Mathis tells James Bond, “villains and heroes get all mixed up.” Â Indeed, a conspicuous moral ambiguity infects virtually every scene in Quantum of Solace, the long-awaited follow-up to 2006’s franchise “reboot” Casino Royale. … Read more
The nurse approached my bed impatiently, extended her hand, and snapped, “Hand me your birth plan.” I could only shake my head, as another contraction gripped me. “No,” I sighed as the moment eased, “I didn’t get to writing that down.” My nurse broke into a smile. She took my hand — the one without … Read more
Redeemed: A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity, and the Peace that Passes All Understanding Heather King, Viking Adult, 256 pages, $24.95 There have been times, in the course of raising my little brood of Young Catholics, when I have sighed and wondered, “What does religion have to do with my children, with their … Read more
Toward the end of the 1880s, Francis Marchese, publisher of the New York Italian newspaper Il Progresso Italo-Americano, wrote about his fellow countrymen in New York: "The Italian colony are exploited economically and morally by other Italians and by Protestants. The Italians are hated, treated like animals, persecuted worse than the Negro." In … Read more
One of the great strengths of the Roman Republic was its courageous realism. When Hannibal defeated the Romans in the first great encounter between the two armies, a battle in northern Italy, the leaders of the city called the people together to give them the news, and the opening words of the announcement were these: … Read more
Discussing the moral sense of Scripture would seem easy. After all, we’re talking the Good Book here. Even when they were busy abandoning Christianity as supernatural revelation from God, Americans for the past couple of generations still tended to treat the Bible as a Solid Moral Code Enshrining Tested Values with some lingering respectability. … Read more
Justice Harry Blackmun’s eyes do not meet those of his visitors. Sitting on a desk in a painting, he faces the elevators on the 27th floor of the federal courthouse in Saint Louis, Missouri, surrounded by pictures of himself and summaries of his opinions, but he glances away to his right. To his left, the … Read more
I read an interview recently that is worth commenting on. The subject notes: I was feeling conflicted because my Catholicism is so deeply important to me. It was my sense of connection to the Almighty, to humanity, to my heritage, my upbringing . . . . And my Catholicism informed my view of the … Read more
Last week, I interrupted my series of reflections on the Seven Deadly Sins to accommodate the elections. Let’s hope that my dire predictions turn out to be alarmist, even hysterical. Â Much as I’d like to jump right back on the horse, and ride through the happy fields of Greed, or among Envy’s icy crags, … Read more
When St. Thomas More was led to the scaffold at the Tower of London, he joked to his executioner: "Please help me safely up. For coming down, I’ll cope by myself." The British sense of humor is one of the things that, unlike our cooking, has generally given pleasure to the world. And … Read more
Anne is still tired from her recent trip to China, but she wants to talk about Barack Obama. The explosive growth of her apostolate, Direction for Our Times, has left her exhausted and half-sick, but she is alarmed about Catholics who are describing Obama as the anti-Christ. She asks me if I have heard those … Read more
In the recent Gramophone magazine awards issue, their critics undertake the “hunt for the Gold Disc: the greatest recording since CDs began.” They have narrowed it down to ten. Okay, I thought, I can do that too. Therefore, I offer my very eclectic list of what I think are the ten greatest recordings. I warn … Read more
The other day, a proud Grandma I know announced to me that her daughter had recently given birth to a fourth child. “They named her Zipporah,” she beamed. “Zipporah?” I raised an eyebrow. “Yes,” she explained. “It was Moses’ wife’s name.” Hmm. I kind of like it. Besides, who am I to judge anyone for … Read more
Recently on the InsideCatholic blog, Irene Lagan remarked how in Rome there was a palpable public sense of joy over the election of Barack Obama. News reports from November 5 told of a similar story around the globe. Of course, given the pre-election polls showing strong international support for Obama’s candidacy, this wasn’t surprising. But … Read more
We noted last week that one of the principal problems of trying to treat Scripture as a purely human book is that, though God can supernaturalize nature, we cannot naturalize the supernatural. God can assume a human nature and join it to His divinity, but we cannot take a supernatural thing and reduce it to … Read more
Now that Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States, one hopes he will be able to carry through on his campaign promise of bringing all kinds of Americans together — red states and blue states, Republicans and Democrats, whites and blacks, liberals and conservatives, men and women, young and old. Heaven knows … Read more
Until the end, I held out hope that Sen. John McCain would somehow pull off the upset. Alas, the election came down to the economy, and as is usually the case, the voters pinned the blame on the party whose man is in the Oval Office. For those of us Catholics not motivated solely by … Read more
