“The body,” I was taught growing up, “is just the shoe box for the soul. What matters is the shoes, not the box. So when it’s time to go to heaven, just put the shoes on and throw the box away.” This good solid dose of Gnostic thinking was drilled into me since … Read more
That rigorist Christian apologist of the second and third centuries Tertullian wasn’t what most people would call a funny guy, yet now and then, when something really got his goat, he seems to have been capable of a sharp-edged sort of humor. As in this: If the Tiber cometh up to the walls, if the … Read more
“Fine, then!” Stephen huffed. He tossed a handful of Uno cards across the table and stomped toward the stairs. Each step thundered through the house as he made his way to his room. I love this prickly child. But prickly he surely is. I’d like to blame this one’s temper on his Irish … Read more
When Dante rises with his guide Beatrice to the circle of the lovers, symbolized in Paradise by the planet Venus, he is told that the most brilliant and most deeply blessed of all the souls in that realm is Rahab, the harlot of Jerusalem who housed Joshua’s spies and assisted the children of Israel in … Read more
The solemn declaration of the Credo that “Christ was engendered, not made” (genitum, non factum), is pregnant with rich philosophical insights and is an inspiration to investigate two possible ways of relating to existence: to be made or to be engendered. God is eternal and the Creator of heaven and earth, though our current … Read more
We moderns can be awfully smug when it comes to Old Testament laws about ritual impurity. As heirs to post-Enlightenment thought, it’s easy for us to basically assume they were nothing but pre-scientific attempts to avoid disease, as though the Old Testament was principally concerned with, “How do I avoid trichinosis?” but kept slipping … Read more
In the Australian on May 22, Tess Livingston covered the new translation of the Missal. This good work needed early explanation. George Cardinal Pell, who was instrumental in the English translation, remarked: “The previous translators seemed a bit embarrassed to refer to angels, sacrifice and perpetual virginity. They went softly on sin and redemption.” … Read more
Some will say it’s already here, and I wouldn’t argue with them. The first gusts of the anti-Catholic storm have already been resisted, thanks to the courageous vigilance of Bill Donohue at the Catholic League. Now we have The New York Times‘ relentless barrage of reporting and opinion designed to force the type of “reform” … Read more
My plans for you are peace and not disaster. When you call to me, I will answer you. I will bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you. — Jeremiah 29:10-13 This year marks my fifth anniversary in the Victim Assistance Program of the Diocese of Arlington. I approached Pat … Read more
Faithful Catholics have been so worn down by fighting fundamental heresies taught by bishops that we sometimes shun intrareligious dialogue — that is, talking to sincere but confused fellow Catholics with whom we don’t agree. And that’s a mistake, since many issues really are complex, and we might in fact be confused ourselves. Let’s take … Read more
In the 1970s, I inhabited a world where the Second Vatican Council was seen as an unmitigated disaster. Nuns stopped wearing their old habits — or simply left their convents altogether. Priests left their ministry. There was trite music at Mass, and Benediction seemed to have been abolished. Doctrine wasn’t taught anymore, and catechesis for … Read more
It’s been a while since the Crusades. As a general rule, when our president goes abroad, he does not get waylaid on his triumphal ride home and find himself in the hands of brigands, who send wax-sealed notes back to the vice president saying, “Give us £40,000 and we will release your Dread Sovereign, that … Read more
Shortly after he became pope in November 1958, John XXIII was asked: “How many people are working in the Vatican now?” With the humor that made him beloved all over the world, the Holy Father replied: “About half.” “About half” is a more than generous estimate of the number of baptized Catholics who … Read more
About ten years ago, I mentioned to a Catholic friend that I was starting to work on a book critiquing the Left Behind novels. I explained that it would thoroughly examine premillennial dispensationalism, the unique apocalyptic belief system presented, in fictional format, within those books. Premillennial dispensationalism teaches that the “Rapture” and the Second Coming … Read more
When my husband told me that he had hired a recovering drug addict to do some carpentry work in the house this past week, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The man needed work, my husband explained, he came highly recommended by a close friend, and he could get the job done as quickly as … Read more
When I hear or see people arguing about liturgy, either on-line or in person, I tend to run the other way. This is not for lack of an opinion, or out of some sense of not wanting to be “controversial”; I run because even people who think they know about liturgy are really quite uninformed … Read more
God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the earth. This mission was confided to them, not to let it become stale but to make it bear fruit. They were called to take care of it, to tend it, and to develop it. Nature was the material, and man was to foster its development and to … Read more
One of the most exasperating bits of exegetical trendiness to afflict first-world Catholics for the past 30 years or so has been the endless recirculation, like a bad penny, of the True Meaning of the Miracles of the Loaves and Fishes homily. It goes like this: Jesus found Himself in the wilderness with a … Read more
I am writing this on the Sunday still called Pentecost, on the very eve of “Ordinary Time.” It is the great gift of post-Vatican II — the desert that howls before us. I have been a Catholic now for six years, four months, and 23 days, and am still fumbling through what used to be … Read more
When the health-care bill passed, the bishops’ reaction was twofold: disappointment at federal funding for abortion, while universal care was applauded. For some, including myself, the sound of the bishops’ clapping was far too loud given the immense tragedy of our federal tax dollars being committed to support abortion under the guise of “women’s health … Read more