May 31 was the 200th anniversary of Franz Joseph Haydn’s death in 1809 at the age of 77. He was so revered that an honor guard was posted outside of his Vienna residence during his last days. The great good news is that this commemoration has generated a flood of Haydn releases and re-releases of … Read more
In this Crisis Magazine classic, Benjamin Wiker almost gets lynched arguing for a return to sexual modesty in dress. I have a suggestion for those in academia who are concerned that women be treated as intellectual equals: Try sexual modesty. Before the lynching party arrives, I hope I will have time to explain. … Read more
This year, just like last year, Gay Pride weekend coincided with the feast of Corpus Christi. Washington, D.C.’s Pride parade was fairly restrained: It featured a cornucopia of Episcopalians, and all the marchers went out of their way to sweetly drape beads over the little elementary-school girls standing in front of me. There were Affirming … Read more
Summer is in full wilt, and that means it’s time for the InsideCatholic Summer Reading List. We’ve asked bloggers, staff, and writers to suggest a few titles they’ve recently enjoyed. They’ve obliged. Have a look at the list — you’ll find something for every interest — and then add your own recommendations in the … Read more
In this Crisis Magazine classic, Benjamin Wiker says that the single greatest moral crisis we’ve ever faced is upon us now. It is difficult to gain attention in an era that uses superlatives to describe dishwashing liquid and mayonnaise. Perhaps speaking simply and directly might prove such an oddity that words may again … Read more
Matthew Lickona is a Catholic writer who understands the new media, as a visit to his classy Web site immediately attests. Already well-known for his book Swimming with Scapulars: True Confessions of a Young Catholic (Loyola Press, 2006), Lickona also understands the changing habits of younger readers, which is why he has published the first … Read more
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” That’s how divorce starts for the Catholic couples I talked to: hard-core, confession-going, Humanae Vitae-believing Catholic couples. Couples who know exactly what marriage is supposed to be. One man I spoke with, now divorced, took Scott Hahn’s Christian marriage class with his theology-major fiancée. Another couple, now divorced, … Read more
In this Crisis Magazine classic, Todd M. Aglialoro says that golf isn’t just a game… it’s also a crash course in virtue. “Yes!” cried the young man fiercely, “Footling game! Blanked infernal fat-headed silly ass of a game! Nothing but a waste of time.” The Sage winced. “Don’t say that, my boy.” P.G. Wodehouse … Read more
The other night, I put a question to some friends: “Why isn’t David Letterman funny anymore?” No one disagreed with the premise, but we struggled to find an explanation while trying to recall what made him funny in the first place. The question was provoked by Letterman’s sleazy “joke” about Governor Sarah Palin’s 14-year-old … Read more
Argentina entered a period of deep reflection following the recent death in old age of Raúl Alfonsín, the country’s first democratically elected president after the military dictatorship of 1976-1982. In three days of official mourning, Argentines waited hours in lines that stretched many city blocks to view the former president’s body. The government and opposition … Read more
With a pro-abortion president in the White House, new sub-groups in the broader “culture of death” are coming into view. One of them is dark, indeed. Take two recent events: Dr. George Tiller is compared to Martin Luther King, Jr. The president of Catholics for Choice attacks a political appointee, Alexia Kelley, who … Read more
During the persecution of Christians during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman prefect Rusticus was frustrated by the serene equanimity of the Christian convert Justin, a Platonic philosopher. The Romans considered Christianity a supserstitio parva (perverse superstition) and classified its morality as immodica (immoderate) for, among other things, refusing to abort the unborn … Read more
As I’m writing this column at the tail end of my first trip to Vienna, some of you who’ve read me before might expect a bittersweet love note to the Habsburgs — a tear-stained column that splutters about Blessed Karl and “good Kaiser Franz Josef,” calls this a “pilgrimage” like my 2008 trip to the … Read more
Don’t tell me about the world. Not today. It’s springtime and they’re knocking baseballs around fields where the grass is damp and green in the morning and the kids are trying to hit the curve ball. — Pete Hamill I once knew a woman who, when preparing the first fruit salad of summer, would lop … Read more
Since writing The Thrill of the Chaste — a recovery manual for grown-ups who missed the memo on abstinence — I have addressed all kinds of people, from fishermen in Alaska to unwed moms in New York City, pornographers at “Sex Week at Yale” to hooting Catholic schoolboys in Drogheda, Ireland. But never have I … Read more
In this Crisis Magazine classic, Ronald J. Rychlak says that while Pius XII was no Nazi collaborator, Hitler did have a strong religious ally… the grand mufti of Jerusalem. The Jewish Holocaust of World War II is a story of human tragedy, with real victims, real villains, and real heroes. Important questions often … Read more
The most startling thing about Florence King’s 1982 novel When Sisterhood Was in Flower might be how thoroughly it combines satire and fondness. Gentleness isn’t a characteristic often associated with satire; and it certainly isn’t often associated with Miss King, the acerbic virago of National Review. King on Sylvia Plath: “For all her insecurities, Plath was … Read more
Flannery O’Connor couldn’t have written it better, although she would have found a way to make it funny: A wealthy abortionist, who specializes in the destruction of children exactly as old and fully developed as those you see doctors saving in the preemie ward, stays out of prison for his activities thanks to a … Read more
In this Crisis Magazine classic, Todd Aglialoro explains the controversy without resorting to scientific jargon. This is the perfect introduction to the debate. Embryonic stem-cell research (ESCR) has taken a place next to abortion and same-sex marriage as a preeminent polarizing moral issue. Celebrities marshaled by the late Christopher Reeve agitated in favor of … Read more
On June 26, a powerful film about the stoning of an Iranian woman accused by her husband of adultery will open in ten cities around the country. When a friend called to invite me to see a preview of The Stoning of Soraya M., I was initially hesitant. “Is the film trying to demonize Muslims?” … Read more
