Barbara Ehrenreich is a New York journalist, the author of sixteen books and a trenchant critic of modern American society. A marketing guy at Henry Holt asked if I would review her latest book, Bright Sided. I said ‘yes’ and the book duly arrived on the doorstep. Now I make it a policy to at least try to read whatever Providence sends across my path. It’s my way to learn something. Ehrenreich’s book is a terrific eye opener. Her thesis... Read more

Yesterday while I was spreading my thick cut marmalade on a piece of toast Daphne snorted behind her Daily Telegraph and said, “About time too.” It seems from the piece she was reading that His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh is to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. All of this was part of a piece saying the Queen herself is ‘appalled’ by the direction of the Church of England and is ‘sympathetic’ to the so called... Read more

Yes, the rumors are true, your faithful blogger, like a latter day Don Quixote has done the foolish thing and bought a motorcycle. In fact, I call her Rocinante, and she is pictured here. Far from the tired old nag the real Don rode, she is a rather beautiful and powerful beast. So, like Don Quixote, scorning all the sage and sensible advice from the boringly correct and safe people, I mount my steed and ride across the American south... Read more

The Pope canonized Fr. Damian, the ‘leper priest’ of Hawaii today along with four others. Praise God for the canonization of these new saints. Read the CBS report here, and the CNA report here. Read more

The Longenecker family at my ordination. Wife Alison, Benedict (16) Madeleine (15) Theodore (12) Elias (11) From time to time I am asked to justify or explain the fact that I am a married man with four children, and also a Catholic priest. There are strong feelings in the ‘celibate priests’ debate on both sides, and people expect me to have all the answers. I hate to disillusion those who wish to recruit me for either side of the debate.... Read more

This post pointing out that the liberal Presbyterian Church of the USA has been funneling loot to the corrupt ACORN organization for years makes me stop to ask why such a thing could be going on. We can’t hold our head too high. The Catholic hierarchy have been shoveling loot their way too it seems. This is the inevitable result of modernism in the church. At its core, modernism denies the supernatural in religion. For modernists the Scriptures are not... Read more

That got your attention didn’t it? I got involved in an interesting discussion the other day with some fellow Catholics about the effects of sanctity in one’s life and how it touches human sexuality. The saints are individuals who, by the grace of God, have been purified in this life. They are sanctified completely and have become perfect. That is to say, they have become whole. They are all that God created them to be. In psychological terms they are... Read more