How cool is this? I’m on a bus somewhere in Georgia as a chaperone on our eighth grade trip to St Augustine in Florida. The bus has a wireless connection, so I’m listening to Barber’s sublime violin concerto on my headphones, while still able to blog away to my heart’s content. I’m not complaining about technology! No blogging recently because, after a very busy semester I eyed up a long weekend on Friday and sort of went into blogger crash.... Read more

I had said the English hierarchy were silent on the British abortion vote. Well, the Archbishop came out with a rather bland statement, and I posted a link. Here is Bishop O’Donohue’s statement on the recent barbaric vote in the British Parliament. Pretty good stuff. Much stronger, intelligent, articulate and straight. One of the things which amuses and outrages me, is when the English feel they have to soften their language in order not to offend. So they will address... Read more

There is a cherry tree in our yard, which we thought was dead. All the fruit didn’t have a chance last year because of a late, heavy frost. This year all the fruit trees promise much. We went out last weekend to find the cherry tree absolutely laden. I’ve spent hours this afternoon and evening picking cherries, pitting them and putting them in the freezer. Not much to blog about that, but this sort of reflective work usually starts a... Read more

One of the problems with the pro-life debacle this week in Britain is that the pro-life cause relied too much on political, sentimental and utilitarian arguments. The political argument is, “This is a matter of women’s rights.” or “This is a matter of the unborn human person’s right to life.” When you argue something in terms of human rights, nobody really cares about human rights. They care about who is stronger or richer or more powerful. In this case, the... Read more

After the disastrous defeat of the pro-life cause in Britain this week, why have we not heard from the Catholic bishops? Does it really take so long to stand up, call a press conference and denounce Parliament’s decision? I understand the complexities and subtleties of public relations and diplomacy, but sometimes we need to hear a prophetic voice.  Read more

There was some discussion in the comboxes about the preferred  images of Our Lord. Some people favor a resurrected Lord, others the crucifix, still others the empty cross which carries both meanings. One person said that images of the resurrected Lord were more predominant in the early church than crucifixes. If they mean an image like the one above, this is incorrect. Neither the crucifix, nor images of the resurrected Lord like the one pictured here were known in the... Read more

The Daily Telegraph reports the highest number of Britons leaving the UK for a century. We’re among the number. What did we have in the UK? I could write reams about our horror stories of local petty crime, drunkenness in the streets, appalling behavior in schools, sky rocketing prices for all things, astronomical taxes, total moral anarchy and widespread vandalism, boorishness, decadence and decay. And what of the Church? Don’t get me started on the idiocy of the Catholic hierarchy, stupidity and... Read more

One of the underlying foundations of the Protestant movement in the church has been Primitivism and Restorationism. Primitivism is the assumption that the early church was purer and closer to the essential gospel than that which accumulated over the centuries. Restorationism is the belief that Christians should attempt to restore the church to its original, primitive purity and power. This is a very attractive ideal. When faced with the complex and often corrupt  church–a church that was certainly in need of reform... Read more

Shawn Tribe has an excerpt here of the Pope’s Wednesday catechesis on St Dionysius the Areopagite. Bewdiful. Read more

There are some Evangelical sects out there who shoot at the Catholic Church for teaching that suffering is useful in the process of salvation. We’re blamed for ‘not believing in healing’. It’s worth taking a moment to clarify the Catholic position. First of all, the Catholic Church has always believed in the healing ministry. That ministry is exercised in a multitude of different ways, through the medical profession, through counseling, through the ministry of the sacraments. There is a vast literature... Read more