My latest article for National Catholic Register explains how the advance of technoscience has provided the means to move close than ever to authentification of the Shroud of Turin. The article was written on a high tech, high speed train whizzing through Italy from Rome to Turin…and it got me thinking. The shroud lay virtually unknown for 1,900 years and would have been dismissed as a grubby medieval forgery if it hadn’t been for the advances of modern technoscience. The shroud’s... Read more

My latest article for Catholic World Report recognizes that marriage in any Christian sense of the word has disintegrated long ago in the USA, and recommends what we might do about it. Commentators blame the Supreme Court justices for “redefining marriage”, but we began to redefine marriage fifty years ago when we accepted artificial contraception, when we gave the nod to no-fault divorce, when we shrugged our shoulders and went to the second and third marriages of our friends, when... Read more

This week’s article for the Imaginative Conservative explains the true character of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Was she “Good Queen Bess” the “Virgin Queen” or something much more vile? Confronted by these threats, Elizabeth’s men set up a harsh plan of counter-terrorism. If the pope and the Catholic monarchs were her enemies, then so were all Catholics. Legislation against treason was extended to catch not just those who questioned Elizabeth’s legitimacy, but all missionary priests and those who sheltered... Read more

When the children were at that delicate cusp between eighth grade and high school we had a conversation about freedom. There wasn’t anything particularly new or innovative about my ideas. In fact what I told them was as old as grandpa. I explained that as they entered high school and then college they would be wanting a considerable amount of freedom. They would have the chance to drive a car and go on a date. They would have the chance... Read more

The Supreme Court decision allowing gay “marriage” in the United States has upset all right minded Christians, and rightly so. It is pretty clear that the Supreme Court has rubber stamped a widespread rejection of Christian morality by a large segment of the American people. Not only has the Supreme Court ratified same sex “marriage” but they have overturned majority opinions of the people, set themselves up as arbiters of human morality, trampled on states’ rights, ignored not only historic... Read more

When people suspect Pope Francis of being a “liberation theologian” they have a point. However, he is not a liberation theologian in the classical Marxist sense. Instead, he quite rightly understands that liberation is part of the gospel message. At the opening of him ministry Jesus quoted from Isaiah that he had come to “set the prisoners free.” On the feast of St Peter and Paul the pope referred to Peter being set free from prison by an angel and... Read more

Christians who are unfamiliar with the Anglican worldview will likely be scratching their head over the vote yesterday by the Episcopal Church’s general convention to formally permit homosexual “marriage” to take place. “How could such a thing happen in a Christian church?” you might ask. The Episcopal Church of the USA is, of course, the American arm of the Anglican communion. At the root of the Episcopal decision therefore goes back to the very foundation of the Anglican Church itself. In... Read more

Thomas D. Williams reports here on Justice Scalia’s sharp observations about the recent Supreme Court decision. Scalia wonders how “nine lawyers” can presume to make such historic decisions not only for the United States, but for humanity. Scalia noted that “the Federal Judiciary is hardly a cross-section of America.” “Take, for example, this Court,” he said, “which consists of only nine men and women, all of them successful lawyers who studied at Harvard or Yale Law School. Four of the... Read more

The AP reports here from the Episcopal Church’s General Convention  that the Episcopal Church of the USA is now formally permitting same sex weddings.  Episcopalians voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to allow religious weddings for same-sex couples, solidifying the church’s embrace of gay rights that began more than a decade ago with the pioneering election of the first openly gay bishop. the House of Bishops prayed and debated the issue for five hours earlier this week before passing it on to the... Read more

I heard about this Methodist minister who  had decided to make his church more liturgical so on Ash Wednesday he got some ashes from the fireplace and added some water and smeared the mess on the heads of his people. Thinking he could do better he trotted off to the Catholic priest and asked, “Where do you get those tidy ashes you use for Ash Wednesday?” “We create the ashes for Ash Wednesday on Shrove Tuesday by burning the palms... Read more