Or, as the article is actually titled, The Convert’s Unnecessary Worries. Writing on the Catholic Pulse website, I try to explain why so many convert’s fret about the Church when their cradle Catholic brethren move through life so serenely. The problem, it seems to me from observation and experience, is that we converts have trouble seeing the Church as a living body, one that grows and does what it’s supposed to even though it’s imperfect. . . . [W] don’t have enough... Read more
My Patheos colleague Mark Shea, quoting a piece by Mark Steyn on New Hampshire Republican hypocrisy, declares: “Pro-lifers: I hope somebody who loves you will do an intervention in your unhealthy abusive relationship with the GOP. How many times does he have to beat you up and then promise you he really loves you before you develop some self-respect and leave the guy?” A Canadian pro-lifer writes in: As a Canadian pro-lifer, I would say; If we could have a... Read more
A few days ago I offered a useful analogy for abortion from Israel Hernandez, the founder and head of the Freedom and Virtue Institute. He moved from being a hard socialist to a Christian and political conservative, a movement he describes in a Front Page interview. This movement included a close but difficult relationship with his father, for whom socialism was an almost all-consuming religion. In his universe, nothing was supposed to interfere with a revolutionary’s commitment to the cause, nothing.... Read more
Last year’s fad but I missed it then, playing on The Add a word, ruin a book enterprise, people created the Add a word, ruin a Christian book version, reported on by Sarah Pulliam Bailey. Examples include: The Fantastic Mr. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs The Problem of Palin The Silver Electric Chair And from the Twitterer @MudbloodCatholic: Till We Have Painted Faces The Nickname of the Rose The Interior Bouncy Castle And from Challies.com (these refer to Evangelical bestsellers): I Kissed... Read more
Friends’ books available for pre-ordering, both of which I’d commend. To be exact, the translator of the second is my friend, the author having died in 1989. First, Wesley Hill’s Spiritual Friendship. Second, Augusto Del Noce’s The Crisis of Modernity, translated by Carlo Lancelotti. Carlo is one of the leaders of Communion and Liberation in New York City. CL is again sponsoring the New York Encounter this coming January. It runs from the evening of January 16th with opening remarks from Cardinal... Read more
At the end of a very critical review in The Spectator of John Cleese’s autobiography: Gosh it’s dull, this book — a dreary combination of pompous self-congratulation and tetchy sarcasm! . . . [T]he only time I laughed was at a grammatical error (‘Like Graham and I, Michael and Terry, and Eric were primarily writers’). Not every writer is a good grammarian, but still. Read more
A very interesting and useful site, at least for those interested in converts, with the simple title From American Converts. Leo Wong has put together quotations from the English scholar John Beaumont’s dictionary of converts, The Mississippi Flows into the Tiber: A Guide to Notable American Converts to the Catholic Church. Among those quoted are Marshall McLuhan, Hadley Arkes, Clare Booth Luce, Denise Levertov, Dean Koontz, Joyce Kilmer, Russell Kirk, Mortimer Adler, and lesser lights, including your humble blogger. Not... Read more
G. K. Chesterton’s great hymn, a sharp (and singable) summary of the Christian hope for political and national life. Every line speaks directly to our moment. O God of earth and altar,bow down and hear our cry,our earthly rulers falter,our people drift and die;the walls of gold entomb us,the swords of scorn divide,take not thy thunder from us,but take away our pride.From all that terror teaches,from lies of tongue and pen,from all the easy speechesthat comfort cruel men,from sale and profanationof... Read more
From Israel Hernandez of the Freedom and Virtue Institute, writing on Facebook: I have a home and invite some friends for cocktails and food. Just a few minutes after they are in, I say, “Nah, I changed my mind, everyone out!” I certainly have a right to send them home or elsewhere to eat and drink. It is awfully rude but one can do that. Now, let’s say that I have a boat and invite friends to come for cocktails... Read more
Hoping to establish a clear identity separate from their Muslim neighbors, some Arab Israeli Christians are trying to revive Aramaic as a living language. Writes the always interesting Philologus in the Jewish Daily Forward: Some of you may have been following the stories from Israel about a small group of Christian Arabs from the Galilee successfully petitioning the Israeli Ministry of Interior rather than Arabs. Led by a Greek Orthodox priest, Gabriel Nadaf, this same group has also been active in encouraging... Read more
David Mills
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