Today in National Catholic Reporter, Michael Sean Winters writes that the Church is at her best at funerals. And by gum, he likes those funerals like he likes his booze — straight up, no umbrellas: Still less should those who have just lost a loved one be expected to devise an entire service. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I ran a bookstore/café here in Washington and we lost many waiters, bartenders and cooks to the AIDS epidemic. Some... Read more
It’s pretty much unanimous: the economy will continue sucking for the foreseeable future. In Slate, Annie Lowery reports that housing prices are at a new low, private-sector job growth is falling, along with industrial production, consumer confidence and Wall Street. The good news? Any fool could have seen this coming a mile away: There is, finally, one bit of cold comfort: At the very least, the news is not really news. Most analyses of the kind of recession we are... Read more
According to the New York Times, the ascendance of mean girls in assisted living suggests that quite a few old, gray mares are exactly what they used to be: This phenomenon, a sort of social bullying, apparently comes as no surprise to administrators of senior apartments, assisted living facilities, nursing homes and senior centers. “What happens to mean girls? Some of them go on to become mean old ladies,” said Marsha Frankel, clinical director of senior services at Jewish Family... Read more
For a solid 1,900 years –from Acts of the Apostles days until the mid-19th century, Christians were known for their admirably inclusive palates. Yes, Catholics and orthodox believers observed Lent, along with various days of fasting and abstinence, but these were the exceptions that proved the rule. Pity the poor Jain, for whom every day was Ash Wednesday. But then, says Daniel Fromson, American Presbyterians and Seventh-Day Adventists started getting all Levitcal, in a distinctly earthy-crunchy way: American health food... Read more
In this video, Fr. Jim Martin sketches the life, and explains the appeal, of Trappist monk, peace activist and recruiting officer for the contemplative life Thomas Merton, also known as Fr. Louis, OCSO. Martin, who speaks with a biographer’s knowledge, gives due space to Merton’s intensity and combativeness, but finds him very approachable despite them both. I have to admit, those qualities have always scared me half to death. I remember some scenes from Seven-Storey Mountain where Merton sounds about... Read more
My friend Rick is like an ancient manuscript in an obscure and long-dead language. His meaning, more often than not, is profound, but grasping that meaning can require a long and frustrating process of guesswork. One day he told me: “You know what word I _______ hate? What word I wish I could rip out of everyone’s throat? ‘Sorry’. It’s the most retarded word in the English language.” His opinion on the word “Sorry” was clear enough, but when I... Read more
A Medal of Honor is the closest thing to beatification the government can bestow. It requires a display of heroic virtue, and may reflect the performance of something close to a miracle. Yesterday, the White House announced that U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Leroy Petry has beome the latest serviceperson to make the honor roll. During a close-quarters engagement with Taliban forces in Paktya, Afghanistan, S/Sgt Petry picked up and tossed away a live enemy grenade that had fallen close to... Read more
A friend of mine, a woman from the deep South who belongs to something called a “Bible Church,” once said she wouldn’t dream of asking the intercession of the Blessed Mother. “You never know what a woman’s going to say about you behind your back,” she explained. In Confessions of A Failed Southern Lady, Florence King quotes Henry Adams to the effect that America’s Puritan heritage has cheated American women out of two compelling role models — one being the... Read more
You won’t know about me without you have visited the blog of Ms. Elizabeth Scalia during the last week of April or the first two of May. Elizabeth was away from her terminal — initially in order to travel to Rome for the beatification of John Paul II, later to nurse herself back to health after picking up a nasty case of pneumonia. Rather than let her tillage lie fallow, she turned it over to a hungry rookie — me.... Read more
Diary of a Wimpy Catholic
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