London’s Daily Telegraph reports on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s speech to General Synod here.  The battle for women bishop is now over, and the progressives have won. The Church of England will have women bishops within the year. As soon as the door closes on that conflict, Archbishop Welby prepares his troops for the next big battle: openly authorized same sex weddings. Like every Archbishop in living memory before him Welby straddles the fence with the usual “deer caught in... Read more

Last year I was in Oxford and had the privilege of meeting Priscilla Tolkien–J.R.R.Tolkien’s daughter. I commented on her father’s work and said I reckoned he was the best Catholic evangelist of the twentieth century. She asked why I thought that. “Because he kept alive through a work of imagination a Christian view of reality.” Apparently there is an audio lecture going the rounds slamming Tolkien. I haven’t listened to the lecture, but I understand it is along the lines... Read more

So I was an Anglican priest at the time, and while I was home in Greenville, South Carolina my younger brother Daryl, who had already become a Catholic, invited me around for dinner with his parish priest Fr Paul. Fr Paul is a pretty hefty Franciscan who likes to eat fried chicken and drink beer. Well I picked a fight with Fr Paul about the Immaculate Conception…”Thomas Aquinas didn’t believe it and nyah, nyah, nyah…why do you Catholics have to... Read more

Last week the exorcism of Latoya Ammons and her children was in the headlines and it got me musing about the demonic. An old puzzle in my own mind surfaced–the question of whether demonic possession is extremely rare or extremely common. To illustrate my speculation I’ll tell you about a man I knew long ago I’ll call Gabriel. I met Gabe when I was working in London. He was slim, fit and good looking. He had impeccable manners and a... Read more

An excerpt from chapter five of The Romance of Religion.  In one of his science fiction books, C.S.Lewis portrays an angelic being who moves through a solid brick wall, and when the hero asks if this ethereal being is real he is challenged about the nature of reality. The angel passed through the brick wall, but what if it was the brick wall that passed through the angel? Lewis points out that this is all a matter of one’s perspective and... Read more

I can see that many others greeted the Creation vs. Evolution debate last night between Nye and Ham with some dismay. I didn’t see the debate, but expect it generated more heat than light. The problem with both the aggressive secularist atheist point of view and the fundamentalist point of view is that both of them are literalists. They stand back to back like two madmen–looking in opposite directions, but from the same viewpoint. Neither side has a poetical bone... Read more

The Romance of Religion: Fighting for Goodness, Truth, and Beauty is published today. (Fanfare of trumpets and drum roll please) Here’s the scoop: Skeptics of Christianity and atheists often characterize faith as a fairy tale. Even many Christians frequently confuse the real with the imaginary, adore false gods and reject real truth, as presented in the Gospel. As unbelievable as it may sound, religion is a fairy tale in many ways; Father Dwight Longenecker argues in The Romance of Religion: Fighting for Goodness, Truth and... Read more

Latoya Ammons is a woman from Indiana who had to have an exorcism for herself and her children. The story is making its way across the news outlets, and unusual for a story like this–the supernatural phenomenon and Latoya and her family’s subsequent deliverance has been treated seriously and objectively. Part of the reason for this is because a hard headed cop named Charles Austin got involved, doubted the paranormal dimension and was soon convinced. A woman and three children... Read more

Did you know that one man had the choice–to be Catholic or to be King of England? The amazing story of James III of England goes like this: After the Protestant tyrant Elizabeth I there reigned James I (of King James Bible fame). He was succeeded by his son Charles I. Charles I married a French princess who was Catholic. He was very sympathetic to the Catholic cause and was eventually tried, convicted and executed by the Protestant Parliamentarians under... Read more

At 7:00am the activity at St Peter’s begins. The doors are opened and priests start to arrive at the basilica. I was with them yesterday and this morning. In our cassocks we converged on the great basilica and made our way to the splendid sacristy off the North aisle. There a cadre of boy altar servers and sacristans help each priest vest, find him a missal in his own language and then an altar boy in purple cassock and surplice... Read more