Opinion

The Little Way of the Samurai

Director Yôji Yamada, creator of more than 70 films and a legend of Japanese cinema, has always been most famous for his contemporary dramas and TV series (his Otoko wa tsurai yo series alone has 48 installments). But like many Japanese directors, he was drawn from a young age to the samurai films of Akira … Read more

Fighting the New Tyranny

America, though a wealthy nation, is nevertheless becoming socially stratified — so much so that those at the fringes of life have lost touch with those at the top. The rich refer to the “poverty problem,” and the poor, in turn, blame the rich for all their woes. This rift opens a door for the … Read more

Is It Fair to Say Barack Obama Supports Infanticide?

Objections continue to be raised to the charge that Senator Barack Obama supports infanticide, most recently in a Huffington Post column by Seth Colter Walls. I have made this claim myself, as have Sen. Rick Santorum, Terry Jeffreys, Jill Stanek, Bill Donohue, Gary Bauer, and Nat Hentoff. It’s a dramatic charge, but here are the … Read more

On Mediocre Liturgy

Some time ago, a friend of mine introduced me to a wonderful bit of parody that begins: Awake from your slumber! Arise from your sleep! The homily’s over! It wasn’t too deep! It brings to mind the old joke that the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist is that you can reason with a … Read more

Transcending Anglicanism

The Anglican Church is cracking up, Rev. Dwight Longenecker argued yesterday. Today, David Mills wonders about the fate of our closest kin: the Anglo-Catholics.   Catholics who keep up with Anglicanism may have observed that the whole thing seems to be visibly coming apart.   On the one hand, at June’s rally of the world’s … Read more

Quo Vadis Canterbury?

St. Peter, as the legend goes, was fleeing the persecution in Rome when he met Christ going the other way. The Lord asked him, “Quo Vadis?” — where are you going? He might well be asking the members of the Anglican Communion the same question. Their reply would be, “We’re not quite sure, Lord, but … Read more

‘Peace and Justice’ Catholics

In the summer of 1993, a young woman on my staff came back from lunch one afternoon screaming mad. I had just started as president of the Catholic League and wanted to know what her problem was. It so happened that over lunch (in the New York Archdiocese’s cafeteria) she was berated by a young … Read more

Songs of Absurdity

To worship God at all is to find oneself on a very odd frontier. Here we are, addressing all sorts of fervid sentiments into the ether — or so it might seem to a chance observer. A passerby might ask, “To whom are you talking, pray? God? But you have never once seen him nor … Read more

The Trenton Times Gets It Wrong on Catholics and Voting

There will be much media mischief aimed at Catholic voters between now and November 4. Perhaps the best example thus far appeared in the Trenton Times on July 30. The headline of reporter Jeff Trently’s article tells you all you need to know about his intentions: “U.S. Bishops: Vote your conscience, Catholics urged to weigh … Read more

Fighting the Wrong War

Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul Kenneth Miller, Viking Adult, 256 pages, $25.95       The best parts of Kenneth Miller’s Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul are surprisingly those parts that deal only incidentally with his thesis: that the battle waged against evolution in the … Read more

Five Ways to Fast

When I became a Catholic in my twenties, my family teased me that I would have to eat fish on Fridays — a food I had avoided since childhood. Their idea of Catholicism came mostly from old memories; by that time, in the early 1980s, Fishful Fridays had long ceased to be a badge of … Read more

When I Was Cruel

Alan Moore — pagan, anarchist, wildly bearded author of V for Vendetta and the terrific superhero-deconstruction comic Watchmen — is not the person one might expect to write a poignant story of homecoming, conscience, repentance, and renewal. Then again, he is just the sort of person to write a horror comic about an advertising designer … Read more

The Government, Divorce, and the War on Fatherhood

Taken into Custody: The War against Fatherhood, Marriage, and the Family Stephen Baskerville, Cumberland House, 352 pages, $24.95 For whatever reason, social conservatives focus considerable political effort on abortion, gay rights, and obscenity, but pay scant attention to divorce. Perhaps they think that ship has sailed for good, whereas other battles still offer winnable stakes. … Read more

Face to Face with the Death Penalty

Last May in Tucson, Arizona, two young men named Armando Estrada and Rosendo C. Valenzuela were working for Mamie Gong, an elderly Chinese woman. Mamie, who owned a trailer park and some land outside the city, had hired the men to help her clean up some trash that had accumulated on the vacant parcel.   … Read more

It’s Time to Talk Honestly about Natural Family Planning

Welcome to NFP Club. The first rule of NFP Club is: You do not talk about NFP Club. You can’t talk to engaged couples about NFP — you’ll scare them away. You can’t talk to experienced older couples, either, or you’ll get an earful about the bad old days of rhythm-and-blues and 23 children. You … Read more

Stealing from Supernaturalism

Christopher Hitchens, in a fairly typical misreading of the Judeo-Christian tradition, is fond of pointing out that “the Jewish people did not get all the way to Mount Sinai under the impression that murder and theft and perjury were okay.” Oblivious to the Church’s entire tradition of the natural law, he fancies he’s scored a … Read more

More Summer Sounds

Last month I began a look at the flood of fantastic summer releases, which only confirms for me that we are indeed in a golden age of recording. This month I’ll pick up where we left off.   Three new CPO releases convince me that only now are we getting a fuller glimpse of the … Read more

Is Gay Marriage Good for Families?

In connection with the same-sex marriage controversy now burning in California, I read the following about a priest from a famous gay-friendly parish in Pasadena: The Rev. Susan Russell of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, who has been blessing same-sex unions for 16 years, told the San Jose Mercury News this month that she … Read more

Catholic Art

  “Don’t talk to me about those idiots, cluttering the fields with their easels. Had I the authority of a tyrant, I’d order the police to shoot them all down.” This was Edgar Degas, speaking less about the then-contemporary rage for landscape painting than about the ideals of the Impressionists. He was, to understate the case, … Read more

McCain’s Opportunity, Obama’s Challenge

In May 2007, Benedict XVI flew to meet with the bishops of Mexico, Central America, and South America. While on the plane, the pope answered a question from a reporter about the Mexican bishops who were threatening to withhold the Eucharist from Catholic politicians who voted in favor of legalizing abortion. The Holy Father expressed … Read more

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