Listening to sermons at Mass, one often thinks, like the professor in the Narnia Chronicles, "What do they teach in school?" Not that the sermons are necessarily all that bad, but they are rarely as good as they would be had the priest been better taught. It’s like listening to a fiddler who hits most … Read more
Recently I had the chance to speak with Jeffrey J. Karls, president of Magdalen College in Warner, New Hampshire. Like many people, I had a few misconceptions about the school. After speaking with him and getting the facts, I thought it would be nice to turn our conversation into an informal interview. With so many … Read more
On the ancient Appian Way south of Rome, there is a small church with a Latin name: Domine quo vadis (“Lord, where are you going?”). It commemorates a legend beloved of preachers since St. Ambrose, who used it in a sermon in the Milan cathedral. The legend says that during the persecution of Christians by … Read more
So here we are again, with another discussion about Catholics and the royal family. We have been here before, each time some royal falls in love with a Catholic, or even when royal marriages in general are discussed. This time it’s a bit different: There is no specific royal eyeing the aisle with … Read more
This has been a tough month for Catholics. I’m keenly aware of the time, because I have been straining at the leash wanting to write about the Legionaries of Christ. In lieu of articles, I’ve subjected my friends on the phone to fully formed paragraphs of commentary till they cried uncle — and devoured … Read more
"Exodus" is the Greek name for the second book of the Bible. In Hebrew, it is called the Book of Names. That’s because, like Catholic encyclicals, the Hebrew books of the Bible are titled by the opening words of the book: "These are the names . . . ." It is fitting that … Read more
I had just boarded the late afternoon train from Paddington Station headed west to Bristol. Commuters were jostling for places, bags were being stashed, and those of us who managed to find seats were settling down with a book or a sandwich for the journey, when suddenly a voice came over the intercom. It was … Read more
This week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will meet with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican. With the debilitating illness of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Pelosi has become the de facto leader of dissident Catholic members of Congress. It’s only appropriate that Pelosi should take Kennedy’s place. When she became Speaker in January … Read more
“The lunatic is on the grass.” It was an hour before midnight. Ten-year-old James was in his bedroom, alone, when he was suddenly gripped by terror. A Pink Floyd song rang out through the empty room. The radio turned on by itself. “The lunatic is on the grass. The lunatic is in the … Read more
In the space of less than six weeks, from mid-December to late January, four men died who played crucial roles in the shaping of American Catholicism as it stands today. The four were Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., the leading American Catholic theologian of the postconciliar era, who died December 12 at the age of 90; … Read more
“Cree-yate in meeeeee a cleeeen heart, Oh Gahhhhhd!” That’s the responsorial my parish sang every Sunday of Lent, until the events of Holy Week moved us to Passion. No “Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you!” for us. Too drastic a proposition for our music minister, I guess. Whether it suited the … Read more
The tricky thing about the Ten Commandments is figuring out how to break them up. The original Hebrew text refers to them as (pedantry alert!) the “Ten Words” but doesn’t do all that tidy stuff with the tablets and the Roman numerals clearly delineating where one commandment leaves off and another starts. As a … Read more
After his Vigil Mass, the body of Msgr. William B. Smith was carried out the main doors of St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, for the last time, and I wondered how many thousands of entrances and exits he had made through those same doors since he had first arrived as a seminarian. It was not … Read more
It may seem strange to assert that Catholics have forgotten how to pray. Surely we still beseech the Lord in times of distress. We attend Mass, we say the rosary. More than that, simply because we are human, by the grace of God the Spirit works within us, with unutterable groans and longings. We pray … Read more
A few years ago I wrote a book that was very pessimistic about the future of the Church in the United States. American Catholicism is a religion, I argued, in a state of probably irreversible decline. It is on the road, not to total disappearance exactly, but to a reduced state in which it will … Read more
Recently I’ve begun to notice a resemblance between Scranton’s Bishop Joseph Francis Martino and another Philadelphia-born bishop, John Cardinal O’Connor. Bishop Martino is outspoken, and his direct, almost pugnacious, criticism is reminiscent of the late cardinal of New York. Both Martino and O’Connor attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary before seeking graduate degrees — … Read more
In this Crisis Magazine classic, historian T. David Curp takes an honest look at the Church’s record on slavery, and explains why it isn’t all good. Current questions and values can so distort our study of the past that we enact our own version of the "cadaver synod." In this infamous trial, held … Read more
The Catholic Church in the English-speaking world has a serious problem, and it is becoming ever more apparent in the digital age: It maintains a copyright on its ritual texts and charges royalties for printing and distributing them, while admitting only narrow exceptions. The Catholic Church is alone among major denominations in using this pay-to-pray … Read more
No one is ever really ready for the death of a loved one, whether it’s an aging parent or a sibling whose life is cut short prematurely. This reality was brought home to me when two of my aunts (Fredrena and Loupenn), my mother’s sisters, both died within a few months of each other. While … Read more
On New Year’s Eve, my best friend and I went to a bonfire. We’ve done this for the past couple of years: You’re supposed to throw a note or representation of some unwanted aspect of the old year into the flames. But this year the wind was up, and the bonfire roared, sweeping toward delightedly … Read more