Having just had lunch with Joseph Pearce today I was pleased to bump into this article of his for Catholic World Report. It chronicles the large number of converts to the Catholic Church because of C.S.Lewis. New York Times journalist Ross Douthat puts it most succinctly: “First your start reading, C.S.Lewis and that leads you to Chesterton, and then you’re Catholic.” Walker Percy noticed this phenomenon. Joseph Pearce quotes him: The great American literary convert Walker Percy, commenting on the... Read more

What is the truly Catholic version of poverty? What is the truly Catholic version of beauty? Here’s a dilemma: my parish is in the worst socio economic area of our town. Across the street from our campus is a crappy old motel which was built along I-85 probably forty years ago. It’s a notorious flophouse. What goes on there? Suffice it to say that they offer weekly, daily and hourly rates…It’s not the worst. Next door is another old motel... Read more

As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the death of C.S.Lewis be prepared for a slew of articles on the famous writer. The author of this article claims that Walter Hooper–C.S.Lewis secretary (who is now a Catholic himself) believes Lewis was on the way to the Catholic faith.  while Lewis never completed the journey from Anglican to Catholic, he was well on the way; according to his last secretary Walter Hooper – whom am I proud to call a good friend... Read more

I found myself in a foul mood today because some of the glittering successful people snubbed me. I was in their world, but I walked out on it, so they erased me from their history. OK. I deserved it, but it got me thinking about the strange games we play in the world of religion. We try to make our religious organizations–parishes, schools, religious communities–whatever–shiny and “successful”. In America we are so enchanted by the glittery god of success and... Read more

Here is a true story from a convert to Catholicism. We’ll call him Tom. Names and places have been changed… Dear Fr Longenecker, When I came to Greenville my life was a mess. My marriage had just broken down. I wound up in your town. I was brought up in a country Pentecostal holiness church. Now in middle age that simply doesn’t work. I was looking for something more–some way to find Christ again. The entire time that I lived... Read more

My posts last week–here and here— on Cardinal Maradiaga’s speech on the New Evanglization prompted some pretty fierce comment from John Zmirak here and my own observations were mentioned by Ross Douthat in an extended piece in the New York Times here and Rod Dreher here. Douthat discusses the ongoing “civil war” in the Catholic Church between conservatives and progressives and in an uncertain voice he calls for a synthesis and hopes Francis is the man to pull the church... Read more

All the leaves and acorns are falling from the oak outside my office, and as I was walking back up to church with some seventh graders from the parish school, I stopped to pick up an acorn and said, “Boys, look at this acorn. Then look at that oak tree. How could an oak tree grow from this tiny little nothingness of an acorn? It’s amazing.” They stopped and looked for a moment and thought it through. Then I added, “The... Read more

There’s a thoughtful interview here with the young comedian Bo Burnham. He made his name through YouTube comedy routines and is now an international sensation. What I liked about the interview was his honesty and his realization that good comedy is based on Standing on Your Head. It’s subversive and if you’re going to be subversive it’s better to do so with a laugh and satire and a joke than being pompously preachy and soul searchingly screechy. Bo comments on... Read more

Most of the couples who turn up in my office asking to be married in the Catholic Church are already living together. A large number of Catholics who come to Mass are in second or third marriages. Some of them have received nullity decrees, many have not. Soon same sex couples will come to Catholic churches and schools expecting full membership. Some who attend Mass are living openly with another man or woman with no intention of seeking marriage. Others... Read more