Forwarding to you an interesting article about the Church’s apparent success in South Korea. (Though I suspect you might find that either of the claims about “Tolerance towards ancestral rites” and “an open attitude toward the other religions” might seem a bit… “off” [for lack of a better word].) Why would I? There’s nothing wrong with honoring one’s ancestors, nor with tolerance toward other religions. I’m happy that Christ has found a welcome in South Korea. Would that more places... Read more

the culture where consent is the sole criterion of the good deprives a Florida doctor of his license. His crime? Not “killing a baby” but killing the *wrong* baby. He sinned against consumerism. Read more

Canada adjudicates the burning question of how to parse “consent” among very sick perverts. No other questions of the common good are so much as imagined in these deliberations. Read more

Ron Paul is polling dead even with Obama. The body politic stirs in its crazy fever dream and has a moment of lucidity. But the media machine will soon go to work to shove Paul back out of the spotlight and urge us back on to the reservation of which says we have to choose between one of two corporate-backed candidates who demand we support abortion, torture, and monarchical presidency with the despotic and arbitrary power of life and death... Read more

It’s a brief profile of Fr. Peter Weatherby, an Anglican-turned-Catholic priest in the UK. It was made by some students at Staffordshire University. I like the geeky ordinariness of the man. I don’t express my gratitude to priests enough. I can think of few sacrifices that would be harder for me than to be a diocesan priest. The guys who answer such a call seem to me to be offering a sacrifice that would break me. Thanks, fathers! Read more

What do you see? A) Placard-carrying wahoos who have no idea what they are doing? or B) Bold and simple patriots who may not have a lot of book-learning but who have more rough-hewn wisdom and common sense in their little fingers than the eggheads, experts and Masters of the Universe who rule them in Washington, DC? Since we live in the Land Where There are Only Two Sides to Every Question, those are your only choices. You are not... Read more

It turns out the whole “Vatican hated the Beatles thing” is ginned up crap from the Media Hysteria Machine. As I suspected, it created a tiny blip on the radar at the time, in which L’Osservatore Romano noted (duh) that Lennon was being flippant, not impious (which anybody could figure out if they were paying attention. The notion that the Vatican has *ever* had its finger on the pulse of celebrity culture, fretting about what Elton John or Sinead O’Connor... Read more

In which we continue our look at the Beatitudes and distinguish Christ’s teachings from the easy shibbboleths of our post Calvinist enthusiasms both Left and Right. Read more

I am not posting this: Dear Dark Lord, Since you hate Latin and everyone and everything associated with it, doubtless you are planning to send your stormtroopers to my wedding on May 1 at 2pm in St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh. So I am just sending along this little note with a plea for mercy. Please do not behead the talented schola as they sing Gregorian chant Mass 1, Introit, Offertory, and Communion propers, Responsorial Psalm and Alleluia from the... Read more

Reader Paul Nowack writes: Just thought I’d give you a heads up on some stuff I’ve done since the Manalive Pistol shirt you liked. – Just started giving away my latest book on “Microcapitalism” (psst: It’s Distributism 2.0); -Created my own interpretation of G.K. Chesterton’s Gype and published it as a board game; – Wrote up a post about having a gun to your head that points out the similarity between you and Brad Pitt… in movie roles. (Still waiting... Read more