Just a brief post to share how happy it makes me that my friend The Hermit is also Kevin Lowry‘s (and many, many other people’s) friend The Hermit. Brother Rex—when I was first introduced to him, I thought he was called Friar X, which was the coolest religious name ever—is a diocesan hermit in the Franciscan tradition. He’s got a wicked wit, as Kevin notes, and a profoundly holy prayerfulness by which I am borne up every day, as are... Read more
Two weeks ago, in the New York Times, Ross Douthat stirred up a bit of an ecclesial ruckus by asking “Can liberal Christianity be saved?” Douthat was moved to ask by viewing the news out of the then recently concluded General Convention of the Episcopal Church—news that confirmed the markedly liberal social and ecclasiastical turn the denomination has taken in recent years—alongside recently released statistics on the precipitous decline of membership, financial support, and active involvement in Episcopal congregations... Read more
A friend posted this news item from the Steubenville, Ohio Herald-Star on her Facebook page, along with what I think is a remarkably restrained amount of dudgeon: STEUBENVILLE – City officials agreed Tuesday night to change the city logo after a Madison, Wis., organization threatened legal action. Law Director S. Gary Repella announced the decision following a 15-minute closed-door meeting with City Council members. “We will be approaching Mark Nelson of Nelson Fine Art and Gifts and asking him to... Read more
The material world does not need God’s miraculous interference; but God cannot deprive Himself of the power to interfere with it when He sees fit to do so. ~ Rev. Charles Coppins, SJ, A Brief Text-book of Logic and Philosophy, 1891 The world may not need miracles, but those of us living in it often seem to. Some more than others. I welcomed the chance to review Tim Stafford’s new book Miracles: A Journalist Looks at Modern-Day Miracles from a Catholic... Read more
In the wake of the Colorado shooting, as is common with any tragedy or disaster, we are hearing a lot about miraculous escapes: people who should have been in Theater 9 but weren’t, people who turned this way and not that, people who listened to an inner voice telling them something was wrong, or who developed superhuman abilities to navigate toward the exits in the dark and the chaos. In one of the many mysterious ironies of Aurora, one... Read more
With the exception of that other Mary, the Mother of Jesus, she’s the most famous woman in Christianity. (And in contrast to that other Mary, the most infamous.) Certainly, she’s second only to that other Mary among artistic representations of the women of the New Testament. Her name in French, Madeleine, when run through the British mouth, gave us maudlin, which these days connotes a kind of boozy sentimental tearfulness, but originally referred to her penitential weeping. By extension, a... Read more
You know when you hear a word or phrase you’ve never encountered before, and suddenly it’s everywhere? While listening to the SCOTUS arguments on the health care case, I first heard the phrase a bright line used in its legal definition: “a clearly defined rule or standard, leaving little room for varying interpretations,” as Wikipedia has it. I liked that notion, and could even visualize it. In the months since, it seems I’m hearing it used by news commentators... Read more
Tomorrow is St Swithun’s Day, and it can’t come to soon for our parched part of the country. I used to think St Swithun’s Day was just a made up feast, a kind of shorthand for all those obscure feasts and festivals in our calendar, or the colloquial equivalent of some far-off day that never comes. “What are you waiting for, St Swithun’s Day?” my English father used to say. My former mother-in-law, God rest her, was the greeting card... Read more
I’ve got a bonnet full of bees today. Here’s one. Which Catholic job would I least want to have? Head of the Vatican Bank? President of the LCWR? Negotiator with the SSPX? Butler to His Holiness? Nope. Any of those would be easy peasey lemon squeezee, compared to the Most Thankless Job in Christendom: Catholic Bishop. Any bishop, anywhere, any day. And I say that with full disclosure of my secret ambition, egged on by my friends Michael and Brian,... Read more
One of the first churches I visited in Rome was San Paolo fuori le Mura, the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls. I was there for the Papal Vespers celebrated on the Vigil of the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul in 2010. It was my first taste of the zoo that is a liturgy celebrated by the Holy Father. I was astonished to see that as soon as the entrance procession was signaled, the standing-room-only congregation who had... Read more
Egregious Twaddle
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