Though the world barely knows Pope Francis, it has rushed to judge him. As Caitlin Bootsma has lamented, “Catholics, of all stripes, immediately sought to measure Pope Francis against their own goals for the papacy.” Rather than measuring him according to our interests and wants, we should make haste to pray for him. We should, further, … Read more
A few days ago we all had a shocking surprise as a Latin American, Jesuit archbishop emerged onto the loggia of St. Peter’s to the general joy of the Catholic world. The rejoicing was widespread, but not universal, with some expressing misgivings. These are clearly natural reactions, to be expected in any election, sacred or … Read more
Imagine members of the lay faithful being invited to instruct the cardinals who come to Rome to select a new pope. They would be asked precisely whom they would choose as successor to St. Peter. Of course the cardinals are not obliged to take counsel with mere mortals. However avid some of us might be … Read more
In contemporary political systems, every citizen can vote no matter what his level of intelligence or relation to virtue. Some of the worst political systems have high turnouts on elections days. The worst rulers also want to be popular.
Why do adults become Catholics? There are as many reasons for “converting” as there are converts. Evelyn Waugh became a Catholic with, by his own admission, “little emotion but clear conviction”: this was the truth; one ought to adhere to it. Cardinal Avery Dulles wrote that his journey into the Catholic Church began when, as … Read more
So it appears that Osama bin Laden, in the weeks before his death, was noodling the possibility of rebranding al-Qaeda, since the old name seems to have attracted a bit of bad publicity. I held a brief contest on my blog inviting readers to help these guys out by coming up with a new name … Read more
I remember seriously questioning the existence of God when I was eleven years old. I don’t think I was that unusual; like most children, I wondered about things, and God seemed to be the biggest thing I could wonder about. Unfortunately, very few adults besides my parents engaged me about the Faith — and if … Read more
Less than three years has passed since the publication of Pope Benedict XVI’s third encyclical, Charity in Truth. As some readers may remember, the encyclical caused quite a stir both in secular and religious circles — as have many of the past papal encyclicals dealing with economic questions, going back to Pope Leo XIII’s groundbreaking … Read more
The defining characteristic of all my best teachers, from elementary school onward, can be summed up in one word: humility. I used to harbor the misconception that humility meant thinking less of yourself, but the ideal is much more honest. It is thinking of yourself exactly as you are — no more and no less … Read more
The ugly little secret of life, one I hesitate to share with students, is how disappointing all of it is. Indeed, if the reader is under 30, I’m tempted to tell him to click on some other column — lest I drain from him the sparks of life and energy that are meant to keep … Read more
Last week we spoke of Mary as the New Eve and Virgin Bride and noted that virginity always speaks of purity. The purity of Mary’s faith, so closely bound up with her virginity, leads to the other great Marian image found in John’s Gospel: Mary as the Virgin Mother. For at the very climax … Read more
Though he was no friend of the Catholic Church, Erich Heller was the enemy of our enemies, and under current circumstances, that should be good enough for us. The man has been dead for 20 years, and my paperback copy of his most famous book, The Disinherited Mind, has been yellowing for half a century, … Read more
Henry Karlson at Vox Nova has offered a list of the top ten theological works of the 20th century, “based upon either their influence or the value I see they should have for the future of theology.” Here is his list: 10. Henri de Lubac, Catholicism. 9. Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology. 8. Gustavo Gutierrez, A … Read more
The purpose of higher education is the pursuit of truth, and throughout history men and women have devoted their lives to it. One such man was Mohandas Gandhi. Born in 1869, the son of uneducated parents, he was a mediocre student and a self-described coward who feared ghosts — into adulthood, he slept with a … Read more
During all the soccer mania last week, I thought it would be a good time to watch The Damned United, the (very loose) story of the rise of Brian Clough, one of England’s most successful (and colorful) football managers in the 1970s. It was a fun, lighthearted movie: Michael Sheen is fast becoming one of … Read more
Modern liberal Catholic colleges and universities have made a mockery of academic freedom, as the recent Marquette “controversy” reveals (see my analysis here and here). Unfortunately, in reaction to the modernism, relativism, careerism, atheism, skepticism, and political correctness of the typical “Catholic” educational institutions today, some of the more unapologetically orthodox Catholic colleges and universities … Read more
I happened across this horrifying link over the weekend, and am at a complete loss as to what to say about it. It’s mind-boggling: The Katowice Appeal Court has today upheld the verdict of the Katowice District Court which ruled in September ‘09 that the Polish Catholic newspaper Gosc Niedzielny (Sunday Visitor) and its editor-in-chief … Read more
Today, while browsing YouTube in an effort to keep a 3-year-old-boy with an unknown-but-unfriendly stomach ailment amused, I happened across this intriguing video clip: My boys have several of the Superman comic book compilations from the 40’s and 50’s, and there are a handful of Superboy stories in there, so I’m familiar with the overall … Read more
St. Thomas Aquinas was once tricked by his fellow students who cried out, “Look! A flying ox!” Thomas dutifully went to the window to look, and his peers all laughed at him heartily. Thomas’s reply (and one of the many reasons he’s a saint): “I thought it more likely that an ox would fly than … Read more
I tried to look casually confident as I scanned the too-full shelves of my local hardware store. But the manager zeroed in on me anyway. “And what are we looking for today?” he cooed at me, as if a pony-tailed mom in capri pants were the most pathetically lost creature to have set foot … Read more