Has anybody else noticed the distinct reduction in temperature in the love affair between Pope Francis and the secular press? Could it be that the fervor of the secular press for the man who made TIME magazine’s Person of the Year, made it on to the cover of Rolling Stone and the Gay Magazine, Advocate and has been lauded as a gay loving, tree hugging, easy going “hippie Frank” is cooling somewhat? In the Phillipines the Pope was greeted with... Read more

Do you know how to answer a non Catholic Christian who challenges you about the Bible? Knowing how everybody loves lists, here are ten things every Catholic should know about Sola Scriptura: 1. Sola Scriptura means “only Scripture”. It is the Protestant belief that the Bible is the only source for teaching on doctrine and morality. 2. Sola Scriptura was one of three “solos” the other two being Sola Fide (Faith Alone) and Sola Gratia (Grace Alone) 3. Sola Scriptura which means “Scripture Alone” cannot... Read more

Would you like to spend ten days in England with me and my good friend Catholic author and biographer Joseph Pearce? We’ll be conducting a pilgrimage together in June and you can still sign up, but do so  quickly because the deadline is approaching. The tour will focus on Catholic Literary figures and martyrs. Joseph and I will be lecturing on the bus as we travel from place to place. I’ll be celebrating Mass in the various locations. We’ll be... Read more

Celebrating daily Mass is a blessing because you can take more time to contemplate and ponder the mysteries before you. On a large Sunday Mass I am too often concerned with all that is going on around me and making sure everything is going smoothly. On Sunday night I had been reading Mircea Eliade’s history of religion. So many of the themes present within Christianity echoed through the myths and rituals of the ancient pagan world. Here a god descended... Read more

In Slubgrip Instructs the demon Slubgrip has been demoted to teach Popular Culture 101 at Bowelbages University. While he bullies and badgers his scrofulous students he is also plotting with his old friend Knobswart to take over the university administration. His daily Luciferian lectures are interspersed with guest lecturers like Zelnick–who lectures on how to corrupt film. Here’s an excerpt: Door closes. Bell clanging. Crowd voices and movement. A gruff, smoky voice is heard. It is the demon Zelnick: Slubgrip... Read more

The better question is “Why is there anything at all?” New blogger Ben Conroy attacks the problem in his post about English comedian Stephen Fry here. if I was arguing with Fry I might point to the fact that a universe without natural evil wouldn’t have Stephen Fry in it, because the very existence of Stephen Fry (and Ben Conroy, and Michelle Obama, and Justin Bieber) depends on the universe being like this, rather than some other way. I might... Read more

Joseph Pearce has a very perceptive and interesting article here on Tolkien and Trees. He talks about Ents and Tolkien’s love of language. It’s all about roots and time and tradition and the need to be well rooted… This deep understanding of language is analogous to an understanding of history. If we want to understand where we are now and where we are going, we have to understand where we have been. And what is true of history in the... Read more

This week’s post at Aleteia explains that stewardship of the environment has been part of the church’s teaching and the pope’s agenda for some time. Benedict XVI was actually dubbed “the Green Pope” during his reign. Pope Francis’ planned encyclical on the environment will build on the work of his two predecessors. If any recent pope was a pioneer in the church’s advocacy of responsible stewardship of the environment it was Benedict XVI. He realized that environmental issues are not... Read more

Stephen Fry’s passionate condemnation of God for creating a world with children’s bone cancer, flesh eating microbes and cannibalistic serial killers brings us to ponder the nature of evil in the world. While Stephen Fry’s complaint reveals more about Stephen Fry than God, it is still a very popular complaint and a question worth asking. The Christian answer is that most of the world’s evil is caused by human beings who make bad choices. I think Fry is skating around... Read more