“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
St. Thomas More said that to be a Christian, we must not only believe the Resurrection, we must continually be surprised by it. That saint, surprised daily by the empty tomb, saw what happens when people are not even surprised by God. The reinvented government that sentenced More to death was, from various angles, a … Read more
So MLB commish Bud Selig isn’t going to overturn that call and give Armando Galarraga his perfect game. What do we think of this decision? Sports media opinions are varied, both from pundits and fans. Me? As a baseball fan, political conservative, and reflexive traditionalist… I’m torn right down the middle. Conservative arguments in favor … Read more
My contact with Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series — a cultural phenomenon of truly staggering proportions — has been blessedly limited. Other than a quick sampling of a few pages from the first book (which left me semi-horrified at the level of prose on display) and a brief brush with most-amusing-if-still-not-entirely-appropriate RiffTrax ever, I am essentially unTwilighted. Even Matthew … Read more
…and no one’s there, does it make a sound? Over at dotCommonweal, Robert Imbelli had a brief post on the buzz-producing “Yes” from Scott Brown on yesterday’s jobs bill. While many analysts have spent the last little while dissecting the vote itself, Imbelli noticed a much quieter (yet much more depressing) note in the story: Three hours before … Read more
Rekindling a semi-tradition from last year, here is a piece of sacred music to help celebrate the First Sunday of Lent. I thought I’d start off with a relative newcomer (to me, at least): “In te Domine speravi,” from the ubiquitous Anonymous. O Lord, in Thee I have hoped; let me never be put to … Read more
Last year, my Constitutional Law class was discussing the so-called war on Christmas, part of the effort to remove all things religious (or at least all things Christian) from the public square. One of my students argued that holidays did not need to have a religious basis. As an example, she mentioned Valentine’s Day. I … Read more
“Mo-om!” If the rolling of eyes could make a noise, my oldest daughter’s facial expression would have been deafening. Â We were headed to her orthodontist appointment. It was early, but I had brushed my teeth, put on make up, and was wearing my new hat. I thought I might even look a little bit … Read more
Decades ago — nearly four of them, I think: around 1971 — I was reading an account of the problem of homelessness in Boston. It was a study done by clinical psychologists, and it contained one interesting factoid that remains in memory to this day. The investigators found that 95 percent of the street people … Read more
Theology can be defined many ways, but two definitions are perhaps most significant. The first could be described as “God-talk”: It is logos (speech) with theos (God). In this way, prayer is seen as theology proper. In time, this led to a second definition — that theology involves the study of God. The early Christians, … Read more
I can’t help but like Kathy Shaidle, the scrappy author of a Canadian blog called Five Feet of Fury. I’ve always had a weakness for people who tell you exactly what they think and never bother to mince words, and Shaidle is all that. One of the most forthright critics of Canada’s Tyranny of Nice … Read more
We never know what curiosities former students will come up with. Eric Wind, an ex-student long interested in the history of Georgetown College, found for sale on eBay an old examination given at Georgetown in January 1929. (Let me note that this test was not Schall’s, as in January of 1929, he was but … Read more
The feminist challenge to the Catholic faith is based upon a deep misunderstanding. Feminists accuse Catholicism of being thoroughly patriarchal. They claim that women have been oppressed since the Church’s inception by a male power structure. In the Catholic Church, they charge, men and men alone are the rulers in a hierarchically-based system of pope, … Read more
When it was time for cake and ice cream following my eight-year-old son’s recent birthday dinner, I donned a pair of sunglasses. My husband and kids knew exactly why I went for the eye cover. It was to spare my dignity. Â You see, our family has a birthday tradition of taking turns around the … Read more
This past Sunday, as I attempted to get my wriggling, squeaking, squirming children settled in our pew for what usually amounts to a liturgical rodeo — see if you can keep them on their best behavior for eight seconds without getting thrown out of the church — I noticed the arrival of two women in … Read more
Dear Tiger, Â Golf commentator Rick Reilly recently upbraided you in an ESPN.com column for your behavior during golf tournaments. When I first read the words, “Woods needs to clean up his act,” I was surprised that a writer whose livelihood depends on access to golfers like you would jeopardize his career by potentially alienating … 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
The president, I have decided, is a genius. He knew that by receiving Notre Dame’s honors, he would solidify the wisdom of the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for the most anti-life candidate ever. He also understands that the best way to counteract the so-called Catholic influence on the present Supreme Court is to … Read more
The beatitude teaches us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). Â The gospel calls us to a paradox in its teaching on poverty. First, it bids us recognize in the face of the poor the face of Christ. Our culture is resistant to this idea and … Read more
Recently, the influential German philosopher Jürgen Habermas spoke of the emergence of a “post-secular” society. It had long been thought that as societies grew in technological and economic power, and as the risks of daily life that had been so common for generations faded beneath the safety of plentiful food, a social welfare system, and … Read more