My latest blog post at National Catholic Register compares Justice Antonin Scalia to Don Quixote and says we need more like him… Addressing the Knights of Columbus, Justice Antonin Scalia said, “God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools …If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity…Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt... Read more

Over at ChurchPoP they’ve reprinted one of my old blog posts about miracles. Why then, are there not more miracles reported amongst those who believe? There are a couple of reasons. For one, very often our “belief” in miracles is purely academic. We say we believe in miracles because it is part of our whole Christian belief system. But in practice we don’t expect to see one. Secondly, I think we don’t experience as many miracles because we don’t need them.... Read more

I have to confess, I am fond of conspiracy theories. I like to ponder who really killed JFK. Why was the Bush clan so close to the Hinckley family whose son tried to assassinate Reagan when Bush Sr was VP? Is Jimmy Carter really one of the Kennedy boys and is Bill Clinton really a Rockefeller? Was Queen Elizabeth I a man and are the members of the British Royal family immortal shapeshifting reptilians from outer space? Were the twin towers brought... Read more

Go here to read my article at National Catholic Register on the price of mercy. I can remember an old gospel preacher saying, “Mercy is free, but it ain’t cheap.” Like so many of the old-timers, he understood God’s unlimited, unmerited and unconditional mercy, but he also understood that it comes at a price. The Catholic Church stipulates that an image of the crucified Lord is to be the predominant image near the altar of a church. This is to... Read more

Jesus’ battle in the wilderness is the battle with the three great temptations: the flesh, the world and the devil. The first is the temptation of the flesh. Jesus is fasting in the great tradition of forty days and nights. The great flood was forty days. Moses on Sinai fasted forty days. Elijah on the holy  mountain fasted forty days. The temptation is not the eating of bread, but the breaking of the vow and the breaking of the great... Read more

My latest article for Aleteia discusses the need for personal virtue in public life. What is most disturbing is not that some politicians are crooked, scheming, corrupt and wicked but that so many of the electorate don’t seem to care. When issues of personal integrity are raised, the people shrug. When candidates are challenged on their policies about morality, the sacredness of human life and the sanctity of marriage, they dodge the question or give bland answers while their supporters... Read more

…at Saturday’s debate I saw the most horrible Trump moment. It was not his vulgarity, his coarse language, his sexist attacks, or his crude aggressive name calling. It was not his lies, mendacity, manipulation and innate dishonesty. It was not his fake tan, fake teeth, fake hair and fake face. It was not his history of buying politicians, scheming to grab property from old ladies, planned bankruptcies and running casinos. It was not his bragging, racism, boasting and megalomania. It... Read more

There are some Catholic  bloggers and commentators saying that it is okay to vote for Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton because, even though they are pro abortion, they are “pro life” on other issues. Health care is a “life” issue, they argue. A living wage is a “life” issue. Good treatment of immigrants is a “life” issue. Torture is a “life” issue. This is a lie. Do not be taken in by it and do not propagate this lie. Use your... Read more

My essay for The Imaginative Conservative this week considers Eliot’s poem Ash Wednesday and looks at his penitential life. Ash Wednesday was composed at the climax of Eliot’s disastrous relationship with Vivienne, and it clearly indicates that with his religious conversion he had also decided to embark on a new life which would be free of Vivienne. Ash Wednesday echoes with much of the same imagery that would recur in The Four Quartetswritten a few years later. As he drew us into the emotions of despair... Read more