On Saturday I attended the first South Carolina Catholic Men’s Conference. At the book table a young guy said to me, “Father, I’m a convert from Baptist too.” “Great! Tell me how that happened!” “It was my mother. She messed me up at the age of seven.” He said this with a smile on his face. “See we were in the Baptist church for communion and they were passing those trays around with little bits of cracker on them…” “I... Read more
Are demons and angels real? There are an increasing numbers of new stories about exorcism and the reality of the demonic. I wrote recently on how the demonic may be manifested in many ways other than the obviously shocking stuff of the exorcism movies. The Devil in Ordinary told the story of a guy I met who was outwardly normal, but there was another quality to him which lurked beneath the surface which seemed diabolical. As a Catholic priest I do not... Read more
Peter Foster is the American editor of London’s Daily Telegraph. He reports here on the rising tide of secularism in America. The decline of mainstream Protestantism in America over recent decades has been well documented, but for much of that period Evangelical Christianity appeared to be immune to that wider trend, as mega-churches continued to grow and George W Bush took the White House. But now, according to Mark Chaves, a divinity and sociology professor at Duke University and author of “America Religion:... Read more
My friend Kathy Schiffer posts quotable quotes from time to time and today she has a hum dinger from Jonathan Swift: “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” I replied that I now understood why everyone is against me. On further thought, it is true that Swift’s comment may well be applied to the genius of the Catholic religion. When considering the Catholic... Read more
There is a delicious quip in the acerbic English comedy series, Yes Prime Minister in which the prime minister has to appoint an Anglican bishop and his assistant says the perfect choice would be combination of a socialite and a socialist. A cute comment on the tendency of Anglican bishops to either be “out of the top drawer” or pretending to be. From their palaces and limousines they love to criticize any government official anywhere who dares to attempt to reform... Read more
The news services are buzzing today with Pope Francis’ schedule this week. Everyone smells real reform in the air, but what “reform” means to some is not what “reform” means to others. Sandro Magister predicts nine days of fireworks here. The second half of this month of February is characterized by a startling series of appointments, for the ecclesiastical Rome of Pope Francis. To begin, from Monday the 17th to Wednesday the 19th there will be a meeting of the... Read more
In 1992 I was an Anglican country vicar on the Isle of Wight. The Church of England was debating the question of women’s ordination. After due consideration I had come down on the side of those opposed to this innovation. As we discussed the matter in my parish council it emerged that most of my people were on the other side. They either had no objection or they were positively in favor of women’s ordination. I said at that time,... Read more
Rod Dreher comments here on the implications of several recent court rulings on the same sex marriage issue. Federal judges in Virginia and Kentucky have struck down their states’ ban on same sex marriage, and in Kentucky the judge ruled that Kentucky had to recognize same sex marriages that have taken place in other states. Dreher quotes the LA Times, No federal judge has ruled in favor of such bans since a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on the issue last summer.... Read more
WORLD is the Christian magazine where Bob Jones IV (yes THE Bob Jones) is the editor. Bob Jones IV is the son of BJIII. He decided he did not want to be president of his namesake university and works as a journalist. His brother Stephen took the helm at BJU, but resigned in December for health reasons. Imagine my surprise this morning to find that WORLD has a nice review of The Romance of Religion in today’s online edition. Longenecker argues... Read more
Belgium already has one of the most aggressive euthanasia laws in the world, and now lawmakers in Belgium have extended permission for euthanasia to children. CNN reports here on a law that allows doctors to take active steps to euthanize older children who consent. Belgium legalized euthanasia in 2002 for those in “constant and unbearable physical or mental suffering that cannot be alleviated.” Minors were included in the original proposals but were left out of the final legislation for political reasons.... Read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker
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