Surprising The World With An American Pope America went bonkers. The world went wild. And all of us papal pundits felt absolutely gobsmacked at the surprising choice. Conventional wisdom held an American from the United States could not be elected pope. Why? Well, then the good old U.S.A. would be a superpower in the secular world and a superpower in the spiritual realm. No Cardinal wanted that to happen. Except no one told the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic... Read more
I remember a night long ago in college, when I was searching for why I should remain a Catholic, I came across one of (now Saint) John Henry Cardinal Newman’s major works “An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine”, published in 1845. Yes, I know. I should have been out drinking, or vegging, or dating, but no, I was reading Newman and I was in the stratosphere. I had just discovered the inescapable reason why I had to remain... Read more
On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2025, Vice-President J. D. Vance gave a historic speech at the Munich Security Conference. First responses from the elites he spoke to and from the legacy foreign press, and then our legacy media were ferocious. Calling the speech ill-timed, out of touch, and repulsive to our allies, the critics almost universally condemned both the speech and Vance. Then, other voices from other media and ordinary Europeans crept into the public sphere. Brilliant, much-needed, historic, said... Read more
Why A Priest Writes Christian Fantasy After being inundated with the summer’s new television shows, Game Of Thrones–House of the Dragon and The Lord of the Rings–The Rings of Power, I did a lot of thinking about why I write Christian fantasy. I really should qualify that though. If I say I write Christian fantasy, I could be lumped in with the many Christian fantasy novelists who write fantasy with a proselytizing bent. The label might make a prospective... Read more
The Coming of Tolkien’s, The Rings Of Power A week from now, Amazon Prime will premier the long-awaited series, The Rings of Power. A prequel to Tolkien’s much beloved Lord of the Rings Trilogy, it tells tales cobbled together from the appendices of that trilogy–and therein lies the problem. Amazon has released several trailers and interviews with the cast and spun some of the plot in drips and drabs to ferociously hungry fans. It has done so mostly through... Read more
Is That All There Is? Disaffiliation From Religion Increases Perhaps one of the least liked of Jesus’s parables is that of the wealthy man who reaps a great harvest, puts up extra barns, believes he should eat, drink and be merry, and finds himself dead that night. What a downer. I’m reminded of Peggy Lee’s fabulous song “Is That All There Is?” thinking that those would be the last words of the wealthy man. Except…an awful lot of people think... Read more
The Radical Left Is A Religion Talk about unhinged. It may seem like the usual radical left vs. pro-life drama. But it’s not. When the Supreme Court recently handed down its decision on abortion, the radical left went bonkers. That’s when it became evident to people that the radical left has turned into a religion. It has codified its creed: human autonomy is the chief right. This is clarified in that jingoistic popular mantra–“My Body, My Choice!” And though... Read more
A Time Of Despair? Going on social media can be a dismal time for Catholics. Whether it is TikTok or FaceBook or some other site, non-Catholics, especially, gleefully announce the demise of Christianity as a whole or Catholicism in particular. Social media experts announce that belief in God is waning in the U. S. (down to 81 % from 95% fifteen years ago). They also parrot the view, unfortunately true, that U. S. Catholics are not coming to... Read more
An Unexpected Deliverance–The Death Of Roe V. Wade And so it happened, here on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It took 50 years, much prayer and protest, much sacrifice and dedication, but Divine Mercy trickled through the land. A monstrous decision decades ago was finally dealt a death blow by the Supreme Court as it threw out the constitutional right to an abortion. The echoes of the cries of 63 million human beings snuffed out during this... Read more
Where Are You Catholics? A little riff on a famous Christmas song: Where are you Catholics? Why can’t I find you? Why have you gone away? Back in June 2020, I wrote an article that prophesied Catholics would not return after the pandemic. (See: www.patheos.com/blogs/ericbarr/2020/06/catholics-they-are-not-coming-back-unless/). The Church had lifted the obligation to attend Sunday Mass. Zoom Masses took the place of on site attendance. Communion services to believers who stayed in their cars–sort of like drive-in sacraments–were common.... Read more
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