English homosexual activist and public atheist Stephen Fry has stirred the hornet’s nest with some juvenile comments about God and the Archbishop of Canterbury, in a speech defending religious freedom, has propped him up. Fry was a guest on an Irish TV show when he was asked what he would say to God at the pearly gates if it turned out that God really existed after all.Fry responded, “I would say, ‘How dare you. How dare you create a world... Read more

My latest article for National Catholic Register online reviews the disastrous consequences for church unity of the Anglican decision to ordain women priests and bishops. If Anglicans proudly claim to be part of the ancient Catholic Church, why have they thumbed their noses at the Eastern-Orthodox and Roman-Catholic authorities over this matter? Many Anglicans consider their beliefs, worship practices, devotions and moral judgments to be Catholic. Anglo-Catholics pray the Rosary, go on pilgrimages, respect the Pope, follow Catholic devotions and... Read more

Did you know that those posts about Ten Amazing Things you should know are not really about the ten things?! Here are ten things you should know about posts about ten things: 1. The Website posting them sells advertising. 2. The number of readers they have is measured by page views. 3. The more page views they have the more people might see advertising 4. They charge more for the advertising if they have a lot of page views 5.... Read more

Did you know that the author of Black Like Me the classic book about race relations in America, was a convert to Catholicism? This article from today’s Daily Telegraph tells the story of John Howard Griffin, a Texan who famously tried to cross the color line in the segregated South. Griffin was an extraordinary person. His mother was a classical pianist, and he acquired his love of music from her. He went to study in France–studying French literature and medicine. At 19, he worked as... Read more

My latest article for CRUX is posted today. It recounts my introduction to El Salvadorean Archbishop and martyr Oscar Romero. Amid the high emotion aroused by liberation theology, I was one, conservative by nature, who assumed that Oscar Romero was a Marxist. It was difficult to avoid that conclusion once he had become a poster boy for the left-wing cause. Twenty years later, as a Catholic priest, I retained the same doubts about Archbishop Romero. Then I had the opportunity... Read more

My article at Imaginative Conservative this week reminisces about C.S.Lewis’ Screwtape Letters and discusses the need to take sin seriously but to be able to mock “that proud Spirit” Satan. For conservative Christians, Lent is not only the season to do good works, but it is also a holy season to engage in battle with the forces of darkness. Laughing at Lucifer in Lent is one of the ways to do so. Jeering and flouting him means that we are... Read more

John Allen’s Vatican round up is perceptive, objective and informed as usual. This week he focuses on the harmony between Pope Francis and Benedict. The secular press would have us believe the fanciful narrative that Francis is a radical reformer who is turning over the tables of the staid, strict and dour old codger Benedict. Allen shows that most of Francis’ initiatives are, in fact, continuations of policies and principles set in place by Benedict. Here are just a few... Read more

…could their disastrous marriage have been declared invalid? This article in today’s Daily Telegraph reports from a recent biography of Prince Charles that both he and Diana got cold feet the week before the big wedding. The Prince of Wales was racked with such doubts about his doomed marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales that he told an aide on the eve of his wedding: “I can’t go through with it,” a new biography reveals. Both the Prince and his young bride-to-be... Read more

In New York Review of Books Cambridge historian Eamon Duffy reviews three papal biographies and uses the opportunity to give a clear, objective and sharp analysis of Pope Francis and his papacy. On the one hand Pope Francis is a reformer One of Francis’s first major acts was the establishment of a commission of eight (subsequently nine) cardinals charged with the radical overhaul of the church’s central structures, starting with the Vatican bank. His very choice of name signaled a... Read more