…for the very positive review of Mary, Mother of the Son! (Click on the “Book Review” thingie in the box on the lower left, then double click on the page to zoom in.) And, by the way, that’s extremely cool software with the page-turning special effects. Nicely done. Read more

The guy simply drips with courtesy, class and grace. Read more

The invaluable John Schwenkler mines a little quote from Radley Balko that neatly summarizes everything I think about the Palin kerfuffles: It is possible that Sarah Palin was both unfairly mistreated and personally attacked by the media and many on the left, and that her family was rather ruthlessly and mercilessly run through the ringer . . . and that she’s a not particularly bright, not particularly curious, once libertarian-leaning governor who sadly devolved into a predictable, buzzword spouting culture... Read more

Albert McIlhenny finishes the trilogy and concludes, “This volume, and the series as a whole, seems destined to be the standard apologetics work on Catholic Marian beliefs for years to come.“ And, in his own unique way, James White, having glanced briefly at it, raves that it is a “Desperate Defense of Marian Mythology“. That’s as handsome a compliment as I could have asked for! What? You haven’t gotten your (signed) copy yet? You poor thing! Let me help you... Read more

Michael Novak speaks in tongues: The Catholic tradition—even the wise Pope Benedict—still seems to put too much stress upon caritas, virtue, justice, and good intentions, and not nearly enough on methods for defeating human sin in all its devious and persistent forms. ???? So… what? The Pope is too focused on caritas and not enough on buying Novak’s pleas for pre-emptive war to bring about an end to evil? The Pope is insufficiently reverential of the rousing success that is... Read more

Live forever! I am perpetually astonished at how pundits can *instantly* render sweeping verdicts on papal encyclicals before the ink is even dry. And even more on how they can actually exegete such encyclicals like 19th century German scholars purporting to know, down to the word, which passages are written by the Yahwist, Elohist, Priestly and Deuterocanonical authors. I’m always reminded of Fr. Benedict Groeschel’s favorite biblical scholar, Mrs. Sandoc, the Jewish lady who lived across the street from him... Read more

My latest at Catholic Exchange. Read more

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but it’s waaay funny to us former Evangelicals The peculiar need to “market” one’s church is something that is just not on the radar for Catholic parishes. That’s both a blessing and a curse. Catholics are notoriously terrible evangelists, so they do not obsess overmuch about strategizing to be seeker-sensitive and or figuring out how to capitalize on various trendinesses in order to be hip and with it. Catholics wouldn’t know how to be “culturally strategic” if their lives depended... Read more

A Cistercian crie de coeur. Read more