Nothing is more deadly to discourse than Johnny One Note launching another pitch for his particular crusade. I risk sounding a familiar theme only because I just witnessed powerful evidence favoring its cause. I refer to an overwhelming, positive reaction shown by a congregation to a Gregorian chant Mass, given at Saturday five p.m., the … Read more
My wife and I are quickly approaching the four month anniversary of having two foster children in our household, and although it’s been an experience unlike any other, I can’t help but to feel like an “Associate Member” of the Parent Club. Not that we give our foster children any less love, wisdom, discipline, praise … Read more
In Stephen Hawking’s forthcoming book, The Grand Design (co-written with American physicist Leonard Mlodinow), he says: Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist… It is not necessary … Read more
Last week I introduced the notion of “theological deal-killers,” hypothetical events which, if they happened in the real world, would cause one to question his faith. While a few readers thought it impious that I was willing even to entertain the idea, most chimed in helpfully with their own list of teachings so central, traditions … Read more
For years I’ve puzzled over the question of why Catholics have such trouble coming to terms with economics. This problem applies only to modern Catholics, for it was Catholics in 15th- and 16th-century Spain who systematized the discipline to begin with. That was long ago. Today, most of what is written about economics in Catholic … Read more
Survival is the least of my desires. –Dorothy Allison It’s that time of year again: Sultry heat punctuated by thunderstorms, back-to-school charity drives at church . . . and the publication of endless “college survival guides” for incoming freshmen. At first glance, this clichéd phrase might seem a bit overstated. College isn’t exactly the ascent … Read more
Exactly a year ago today, our oldest son, Luke, and his wife, Tasha, presented to the world the inimitable Lucy Beatrice Shea. (In fairness, Luke couldn’t have done it without Tasha. And, in hasty self-defense, I add that Tasha is a really good sport who enjoys a good laugh about labor and won’t, I am … Read more
What happened to Islamic civilization? How did we get from Avicenna and Cordoba to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda? In his new book, The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis, Robert R. Reilly traces the problem back to a thousand-year-old theological debate over reason and the nature of … Read more
What’s the right age for receiving the Sacraments of Initiation? Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, the prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship, writes in L’Osservatore Romano that children should be allowed to receive the Eucharist “as soon as they are able”: Citing the 100th anniversary of Pope Pius X’s decree as a “providential occasion to remember … Read more
Whether or not BP finally manages to seal the well in the Gulf of Mexico, putting an end to the millions of gallons of oil that have already spilled into the ocean, there’s a much greater question at stake. To be sure, debates about social and political economy will continue: How should federal and local … Read more
A fascinating book review in The New Republic by Oren Harman tells the story of how the theory of infinity came to be — and how it was heavily influenced by the mysticism of Russian Orthodox monks on Mt. Athos. In 1913, the monks had been attacked and dispersed by the Russian Navy over their … Read more
Every day while I’m at home with the kids, they bug me to do “actibuhdees” with them. I’m not great on the activities front: I’m artsy but not craftsy. I can put crayons and paper in front of them, have them help me cook something – I’ve even enlisted their assistance in the making of … Read more
Please check out this article, at First Things, entitled “The Kids Are Not All Right.” The gist is that a movie has been made depicting the outcome when the children of lesbian couples who conceived by artificial insemination from an anonymous donor encounter their no-longer anonymous dads. Two things in this situation are clear: 1. … Read more
At 5:00AM this morning, I woke for no apparent reason. Four seconds later, the house began to rattle. It was like a huge truck had driven by, shaking our home… except there was no truck, or anything like it. Earthquake, I thought. That was an earthquake. It was brief and didn’t continue so I promptly … Read more
Every time I go to confession, I am yet again grateful for the men who serve us as priests. Of course I am thankful for Mass, but it often seems that the priests are grateful, too. Confecting the sacrament, offering in persona Christi the perfect sacrifice, feeding Christ’s people the saving Food . . . … Read more
Me assuming the task of writing about “bearing wrongs patiently” is like asking the Incredible Hulk for anger management counseling or seeking out Britney Spears for tips on marriage and child-rearing. I don’t bear wrongs very patiently. Why should I? Those people are wrong! They need to be set right! I’m only doing my Christian … Read more
Another good reason to homeschool your kids was offered by the high school of Arlington, Massachusetts: they aren’t offering to let students recite the Pledge of Allegiance in the classroom – even voluntarily. 17-year old Arlington high student Sean Harrington has been leading a crusade to allow the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited in … Read more
“Europe will return to the Faith, or she will perish. The Faith is Europe. And Europe is the Faith.” So wrote Hilaire Belloc in 1920, when the death of Christianity on the European continent appeared to loom over the horizon. Now that horizon seems to have been reached. A mere 21 percent of Europeans 
say … Read more
When I was a young man, I always assumed parents loved their adopted children less, or at least differently, than those who genetically shared their flesh and blood. When I thought of myself as a father, it never occurred to me that I might one day love my adopted son as much as my biological … Read more
Over the past six years, people — particularly other moms — have asked me how I’ve handled being a military mom. Most of the time, I just chuckle. I don’t feel like I’ve handled it at all. Basically, I’ve let our Blessed Mother handle it for me, and I merely go along for the ride. … Read more