My article for Imaginative Conservative this week is an essay on the tale of two orphans: Huck Finn an Pip from Dickens’ Great Expectations Both Pip and Huck are faced with similar difficulties. Pip is apprenticed to a blacksmith and dominated by his harpy of a sister, while Huck is trapped in the stifling atmosphere of Widow Douglas’ and the sinister spinster, Miss Watson. Both boys seek their fortune by trying to escape. Pip uses the money from a mysterious benefactor... Read more

After the synod, this from Belgian bishop Lucas Van Loony. “If this synod were the Church, I would say that it’s the end of judging people, the end of a Church that passes judgment on all the situations,” said Belgian Bishop Lucas Van Looy. “It’s a Church that welcomes, a Church that accompanies, a Church that listens, a Church that also speaks with clarity.” Is anybody else weary of all the talk about the need for “a new Catholic Church”?... Read more

Thomas D Williams gives an update here on the synod as the final report is about to be released. He doesn’t have much time for Jesuit priest Thomas Reese Though the synod was convened to discuss the many issues facing Christian families in the world today, Reese and his cohort had a considerably more narrow focus: Communion for the divorced and remarried and a softening of the Church’s condemnation of homosexual sex. The “success” of the synod would be the... Read more

Far be it from me to pontificate about the vexed questions the synod fathers are debating, but I have been pondering a few of the questions and have to admit to being stumped. The question is this: “Should divorced and remarried Catholics and publicly active homosexuals be admitted to communion?” The discipline of the church says, “No.” There are several reasons for this. First of all, St Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 11 that a person should not “eat and... Read more

I have not been following the synod proceedings much because as far as I can make out most of the press about it is gossip, and like most gossip it is biased, ignorant and designed to stir up conflict, stoke the flames of discontent, apportion blame without ascertaining facts and being generally nasty and destructive. I’m going to wait for final statements and final decisions. But one thing has come oozing out of Rome in my direction, and it is... Read more

The attack on hypocrites in religion typically focusses on the uptight, self righteous conservative Catholic who judges others while they themselves are guilty of the same sin. You know the schtick: “Mildred is always saying what terrible sinners young people are for sleeping around, but it turns out she’s been having sex with her neighbor’s husband!” or “Those Catholics are such hypocrites. They’re always talking about helping the poor, but they’re sitting pretty in their big houses and driving their posh... Read more

If you follow this blog regularly you’ll realize I’ve been out of circulation for over a week. I’ve been on vacation with two of my children and took a break from all that writing. But I didn’t take a break from thinking things through. I’ve been thinking about that synod in Rome. I’ve been thinking about what really matters. I’ ve been thinking about saints and angels. I’ve been thinking about the need for asceticism. I’ve been thinking about the... Read more

Some observers of the Synod on the Family taking place in Rome predict that if the Liberal German Cardinals don’t get their way that they will do what they want anyway. Fast emerging as one of the sharpest Vatican reporters, Edward Pentin noted here that the German cardinals plan to publish their own pastoral document after the synod. Cardinal Reinhard Marx said theological questions regarding marriage, the family and sexual morality could not be answered during the three weeks of... Read more

My essay this week at Imaginative Conservative is on the contemplative life and is entitled, On Windows, Work and Wasting Time I am just looking out the window. That is all. What am I looking at? A tree. A squirrel. A cardinal and a jay. I see the dog luxuriating in the morning sun. I see a leaf fall. Before too long my mind is in the state where I am thinking of nothing and am therefore open to everything.... Read more