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
Maybe it’s the lingering effects of unaccustomed sun beating down on my fish-white neck all day yesterday as I tried to rototill a garden with my bare hands, as the bug-eyed little boy from next door snuck up behind me every time I hit my stride and shrieked, “KIN I TELL YOU SUMPIN’!!!!!!!” in my ear (what he wanted to … Read more
Norman Borlaug is not the sort of name you think of when it comes to world-historical heroism. A Norwegian Lutheran son of Iowa, he grew up on the prairie, went to college during the Depression where he studied the thoroughly unglamorous subject of agriculture, enjoyed wrestling, met his wife while waiting tables at a university … Read more
Postmodern man — and postmodern woman — don’t know how to give a good party. It’s up to Catholics to reclaim this lost art and share it with the world. Why? Because good parties are intrinsic to our Catholic faith. The liturgical year is punctuated with a wide array of feast days and celebrations, many … Read more
You may have heard that the unwieldy behemoth known as the U.S. Census has been running into some logistical problems lately. Their numbers are That would be my fault. Despite the fact that I have to think hard to figure out which way to go at the end of my driveway (and I mean when … Read more
This little gem has been making the rounds lately, in both a “natural soundtrack” version (below) and a music video version (much less fun, yet included for the sake of comparison): This video got me so excited I had to rush off to classic-retro-games.com right away to familiarize myself with some of the old classics on … Read more
Neal McDonough is one of those actors who has appeared in so many movies and TV shows that his face is almost immediately recognizable to anyone that has watched their fair share of either in the past 10 years. Check out this Minority Report still, for example. He’s not Tom Cruise. And he’s not Colin Farrell. But I … Read more
A red array of metaphors can be read in the wounds Christ received on the cross. The wounds can stand for our suffering and its sources, for our sins, for our vulnerabilities. They can be the cruel divisions torn in the Body of Christ, the Church, by heresy and history. Here are five small thoughts … Read more
Rev. Richard John Neuhaus long wondered about the phenomenon of innumerable Catholics, pious and not, practicing and not, who throng to churches at all hours of Ash Wednesday to receive ashes on their foreheads on the first day of Lent. He was unable to pinpoint a reason why the annual ashes exceed both the Lord’s … Read more
Now here’s a fascinating story. Catholic man meets Jewish girl. They marry. He converts to please her family. They have a daughter. They divorce. She gets custody. He returns to the practice of Catholicism, and takes the three-year-old daughter to be baptized without his ex-wife’s knowledge. Then a Chicago judge issues a restraining order forbidding … Read more
My best friend still makes fun of me for something I said on a liquor-tilting night last century. Fired by some undergraduate combination of sudden conversion and Southern Comfort, I misexplained to her, “It’s just that my worldview is so unified!” This is one temptation of a certain kind of bookish Catholic. (Cradle Catholics … Read more
Burly, red-headed slugger Mark McGwire’s spine-tingling pursuit of Roger Maris’ single-season home run record was credited by many for returning baseball to its post-strike popularity. His head-to-head battle with Slammin’ Sammy Sosa as they chased Maris through the Dog Days of 1998 was the stuff sports writers’ dreams are made of, and when he finally broke the record (on September 8, … Read more
For Christmas, I received a copy of Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures, written by then-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. (I was also given some new shirts, in case anyone might think Schall is a one-dimensional man.) In the last section, Benedict questions whether, logically, a man can be an “agnostic” — someone … Read more
The third-century pagan philosopher Porphyry wrote that his master Plotinus was ashamed to be seen in a body. No passage in literature better summarizes the attitude of the ancient educated classes toward death and our humble mortal frame. In a worldview based on cosmic tragedy, the soul getting stuck in the trap of flesh was … Read more
Academic freedom is a great good that should be cherished and honored by every university community. This precious heritage of freedom originated in the Christian West and rose initially in the great universities of Europe, which themselves sprang from the cathedral schools of the early Middle Ages. Great universities such as Padua, Bologna, Louvain, Paris, … Read more
A recent headline from Zenit announces, “Scholars Aim to Disprove Darwin.” My thought: “Good luck with that.” I’m highly skeptical that guys like Hugh Owen, who believe in a young earth and the coexistence of dinosaurs and humans, are going to land any punches that overthrow the basic arguments for stuff like an old … Read more
For some reason, I still seem to mystify people in my views on the American political scene. Indeed, the most mysterious criticisms I get are the ones illustrated in the comments here, for instance, which say (in mixed tones of bafflement, rage, and disappointment), “How can you simultaneously be a Catholic writer who respects the … Read more
Someone says it every year during flu season: We probably can’t get sick from drinking the Precious Blood at Mass. Why? Because . . . well, it’s God! God doesn’t make you sick. I don’t mean to pick on Rachel Balducci for her post; hers is just the most recent example I’ve found. She says, … Read more
I love to tango.As a single Catholic woman, this isn’t always easy. Argentine tango can be danced close — very close. Its intimacy and passion can sweep me into the romantic ozone layer, obscuring any sense of reality. It lures me into wanting more — more intimacy, more connectedness, more transcendence. So why do I … Read more
Having worked through the Deadly Sins, the opposite neuroses, and the Virtues that stand in the Golden Mean between them, it’s time to help the gentle reader put this knowledge to use. As I warned you, there will be a quiz. Since it’s truth that sets us free, the key to attaining Humility is stark … Read more