At a nephew’s recently, I looked in his shelves for something to read and came across a handsome edition of Huckleberry Finn. I had not read this book in ages, so I began to look at it again. It is pretty hard to put down. Early in the book, the Widow Douglas reads to Huck … Read more
What happens when you concede, without a fight, to the spirit of the age? As riven with strife as the Catholic Church in America has been, I think it is instructive to take a look at a place where there is no strife, because there was no battle. I’m speaking of our good neighbor to … Read more
The historian Christopher Dawson acknowledged in a 1951 essay the difficulty in explaining the Christian view of history. For Christians, God’s actual involvement in historical time through a particular Person and place is a theological principle around which secular history occurs. For people listening to the Christian message for the first Mother of God: A … Read more
In this Crisis Magazine classic, Benjamin Wiker says we have an obligation not to be unnecessarily distracting to others at Mass. As I have not received nearly enough hate mail of late, I thought it best to write something else on modesty, this time modesty at Mass (see my first article, “Drawing a … Read more
I remember when I was in the fourth grade a rerun of The Twilight Zone was interrupted by a news bulletin announcing that somebody named “Martin Luther King Jr.” had been shot. I had not the foggiest idea who that might be, but I could tell from my mom’s worried face that he must be … Read more
The pope’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (CV), is a “big” document, and I won’t pretend to dispose of it with a brief commentary. Like its ancestor, the epochal Rerum Novarum, it will work its way through the mills of hundreds of thinkers for decades to come — provoking responses by writers of every political … Read more
Pope Benedict XVI’s third encyclical — Caritas in Veritate — arrived today containing 30,468 words: an introduction, six chapters, conclusion, and 159 footnotes. It’s not thrilling reading, even by encyclical standards, but as the latest papal statement on the Church’s social teaching, “Love in Truth” will be a work of lasting significance. Those who dig … Read more
The melancholy truth of the matter is that history has now taken us all quite beyond the tranquil days of fountain pen and writing paper and quiet hours at one’s desk. One has to have that gray machine, with all of its ancillary machines, dominating one’s study. I have managed to limit things to a … Read more
The confirmation of nominee Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court justice is almost a certainty. She’s a woman, a Hispanic, and the pick of a popular president who leads the party that controls the Senate. Democratic leadership in the Senate is determined to complete hearings before the Judiciary Committee and get a confirmation vote before … Read more
Yesterday, President Obama held a 45-minute meeting in the Roosevelt Room at the White House with some members of the Catholic press. According to the Catholic News Service, those present included writers from National Catholic Reporter, America, Commonweal, Catholic Digest, Vatican Radio,as well as a (non-Catholic)religion writer from the Washington Post. Rev. Owen Kearns was … Read more
This week I’d planned to address the complex, nuanced topic of humility — the virtue that consists in facing honestly your own good habits and vices. Key to it, of course, as C. S. Lewis explained unforgettably through Screwtape, is to pay yourself attention without getting overly interested in the subject. We are each our … 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
“It takes three to make a quarrel,” said Chesterton. “There is needed a peacemaker. The full potentialities of human fury cannot be reached until a friend of both parties tactfully intervenes.” Chesterton was being funny, of course. But, as always, he was wisely pointing to a truth as well. It is the truth that keeps … 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
Eight years ago today, a famous American philosopher died who had lived as a Catholic the last year of his life. Not so long ago, his name — Mortimer J. Adler — was synonymous with the “great books” approach to education he had pioneered with Robert Hutchins at the University of Chicago in the 1940s … Read more
In this Crisis Magazine classic, Benjamin Wiker revisits the strange history of belief in extraterrestrials and considers what impact their existence might have on Christianity. We tend to consider speculation about extraterrestrials to be a recent phenomenon, a task forced on us by the scientific knowledge we’ve gained during the last century. It’s … Read more
It is a sunny Sunday morning in a typical London suburb. I am doing some quick work in the garden before Mass. My next-door neighbors are Evangelical Christians, originally from India. This morning, the grandmother, wearing a sari, is walking up and down with her little granddaughter, and when we stop to chat, she tells … 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, Raymond Matthew Wray travels to a lonely corner of Ethiopia, where the Orthodox Church claims to have the “lost” Ark of the Covenant. “He says you must go now,” my translator told me. I looked from him to the official standing across from the old church ruins. “I … Read more
For those who may be lamenting the seeming resurgence of the Catholic Left in the Age of Obama, I would like to point out some good news: This year’s spate of bishops’ assignments have been quite heartening. Since the beginning of 2009, there have been ten appointments announced by the Vatican. All of them should … Read more