Elizabeth Scalia
:::WARNING: The very funny and insightful essay and link I am about to present to you contains a variation of the “S” word and several renderings of the “F” word. If you cannot handle the “F” word in any context, please do not follow this link. Go write me a letter about how scandalized you [...]
A terrible story yields a diamond: On Tuesday, CNN host Anderson Cooper asked Ramsey what it felt like to find out that he had been living next to kidnapping victims. “See, that’s why now I’m having trouble sleeping,” he explained. “See, up until yesterday, the only thing that kept me from losing sleep was the [...]
My husband pretty famously teases (and sometimes rants) about the number of books that arrive here and get placed into shaky “I’m going to read this as soon as I can!” piles all around my office. Normally when he grouses, I say, “oh, pshaw!” but the number of books that have arrived here over the [...]
Well, in a manner of speaking. I hope when I die, my kids can manage to produce something as wry and fun as this: Waffle House lost a loyal customer on April 30, 2013. Antonia W. “Toni” Larroux died after a battle with multiple illnesses: lupus, rickets, scurvy, kidney disease and feline leukemia. She had [...]
Since they seem to be recurring themes in my life and my writing, last week I had occasion to again contemplate idols and idolatry and also the way bullies operate. Both idols and bullies play with our psyche, of course, and can do great damage. They are like germs and bacteria that bring disease and [...]
The neighborhood where I grew up was a block of “mutts”, and my own family boasted Irish-Italian-English-Scots-German muttage, but if you asked any of us “what are you?” the answer, our answer would have been “Catholic” and our Catholicism precluded all of our other labels, including “American.” Our culture was American, yes, but it was [...]
The header is true! May is the month for all of that; it’s also the month for First Communions and weddings and graduations. And Mother’s Day. In May, everywhere you turn you are reminded that something is coming up for which you need a gift. That alone should keep you wanting to seek out prayer. [...]
I wonder if the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us something.. Pope Francis has been talking about idols lately, and now we see the word creep into a secular headline: Book: Obama surrounds self with ‘idolizers,’ plots legacy with scholars. A revealing new book from one of the media’s longest serving White House correspondents [...]
“If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire” – St. Catherine of Siena I’ve told this to my kids all their lives, even before I knew Catherine had said it: If you do the thing you’re born to do, you will excel, you will excite, you will change things. [...]
When Maria Johnson invited me to come and chat with the gang at SPQN’s Catholic Weekend, I said “sure” without really knowing what to expect. I didn’t anticipate a party atmosphere at Google hangouts, and I was a little frightened at the idea of talking with four people at once. But when Maria greeted me [...]
Here is Yale alum Leah Libresco responding with vigor to Keli Goff’s recent article entitled “Female Ivy League graduates have a duty to stay in the workforce”: Goff assumes that women who leave the workforce will cease to use the education that they paid for, but there’s nowhere you can go that learning about beauty [...]
I am seriously of the opinion that there is not a single office-holder in Washington who deserves either our respect or our trust and yesterday they managed to win the trifecta of utter elitist shamelessness and privilege: 1) Washington DC Airports Spared Sequester Impacts. Our betters mustn’t be made to wait; delays for you but [...]
We’re still getting to know Pope Francis. To me he seems like the embodiment of Catholic universality, in that his words are thoughtful, reasoned and never kneejerk. Like his predecessor, Benedict XVI, he appears to be willing to discuss any idea, explore any topic because he knows that open dialogue and the ability to wonder [...]
I totally forgot that while taping this interview with Tony Rossi, I had completely revealed myself to be the harridan I try to hide from you, on a daily basis. It’s here at about 5:10 into the chat. Tony’s blog Christopher Closeup is one of the places I go when I need to decompress, because [...]
If you notice that your comments are disappearing or reappearing, do not be afraid! It is merely the housekeeping project I had promised threatened a few weeks ago. Given the work, though, I do believe I will be taking the evening off.
My First Things column this week was more or less (and a little weirdly) inspired by three very disparate things: Pope Francis’ thoughts on “the dark joy of gossip” (and his homily from yesterday morning), Harry Crane’s outburst on last Sunday’s episode of Mad Men and Russell Shaw’s new book, American Church: The Remarkable Rise, [...]
Elizabeth Scalia is a Benedictine Oblate and the Managing Editor of the Catholic Portal at Patheos. She is a writer, speaker and a regularly-featured columnist at First Things and at The Catholic Answer. Look for her book, Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life to be released in 2013, via Ave Maria Press.
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