Here Come Santa Wars: On the True Race Of Santa Claus

Last updated on: December 5, 2016 at 12:30 am By Mary Pezzulo

It’s Christmas! Okay, okay, it’s still Advent for three more weeks. But it’s December, and you know what that means: it’s time for ridiculous controversies over things which would never bother a reasonable person in the least. The primary example of this is the so-called war on Christmas about which I’ve already blustered. But the belief in a War on Christmas forces us into so many dirty little trenches, lobbing gas grenades at so many other little trenches, it would be a... Read more

A Fine Response from the New Pro-Life Movement

Last updated on: December 2, 2016 at 3:07 pm By Mary Pezzulo

I am not, myself, directly involved with the New Pro-Life Movement at this time, but I’ve yet to read anything from them I didn’t think was good sense. Most of my readers are probably aware that recently, the New Pro-Life Movement was the subject of a stream of consciousness published in Crisis Magazine by none other than the inimitable Austin Ruse. Ruse seems confident that the New Pro-Life Movement is out to poison and destroy the mainstream Pro-life Movement out of malice.... Read more

Taking Back the Turkey: A Lesson in Empathy and Charity

Last updated on: December 1, 2016 at 12:31 am By Mary Pezzulo

My mother and her friends were sipping coffee together after their daily Rosary. They were in the comfortable, sunny kitchen of a mom I’ll call Gertrude, who lived in a wealthy part of town. The conversation turned to Gertrude’s sons’ boy scout activities. “Last year, we took a Thanksgiving dinner to a poor family. We brought the turkey, we brought the bag of stuffing, yams, marshmallows, can of pumpkin, sack of potatoes, everything. I thought the children would be so happy, you... Read more

My Christmas Redemption

Last updated on: November 29, 2016 at 2:20 pm By Mary Pezzulo

I used to be one of those children who wrote poetry. Horrible poetry. I was one of those swoony little girls who pretended to be a fairy or a dryad in the trees at the end of the schoolyard instead of playing kickball like the Good Lord intended at recess, and I wrote poetry. I would scribble it out in notebooks or on the backs of used printer paper and hide it, and my mother would find it. My mother... Read more

Joe and Mr. Rashid: An Annotated Interreligious Dialogue

Last updated on: November 29, 2016 at 5:00 am By Mary Pezzulo

Don’t you just hate it when a non-Christian gives a better Christian witness than someone professing to be a Christian? And when said Christian gives a brilliant what-not-to-do when speaking to someone in a different faith? Puts me to shame. Here’s a facebook post from the author and human rights attorney Quasim Rashid, an Ahmadiyya Muslim. You can follow his writing online here. Here’s his status update in its entirety, with my squealing commentary added in. Conversation with a Christian and Trump supporter. This just... Read more

Anything Is Likely To Happen In Columbus

Last updated on: November 28, 2016 at 3:04 pm By Mary Pezzulo

I just turned on the computer to find out that there’s been a mass attack on the Ohio State University campus. One suspect killed, nine victims taken to the hospital, students hiding on the floor in classrooms last I read; I’m sure there’ll be much more news later today. I’ve been trying to think what I can write. I’m not a reporter, and when I try to be I’m bad at it. I’m a poet who likes to write about trees. But... Read more

Towards A Merrier Coffee Cup

Last updated on: November 27, 2016 at 4:07 pm By Mary Pezzulo

I don’t think anyone is really offended by coffee cups. I think that any Christmas cup controversy last year or resolutions this year is manufactured drama started by a few hoax tweets, and that even that pastor who thinks eye-rolling is persecution would be embarrassed to fuss over a waxed cardboard drinking vessel in a heat-proof paper sleeve. At least, I hope that’s the case. My faith in humanity’s ability to spot a con has been sorely tried lately. Mind you, I don’t... Read more

Ron Glass Dies At 71

Last updated on: November 26, 2016 at 6:30 pm By Mary Pezzulo

It seems there’s no end to the calamity 2016 can inflict. I’ve just found out that Ron Glass, who played Shepherd Derrial Book on the acclaimed 2002 science fiction television series Firefly, has passed away at age 71. The cause of death has yet to be released. Of all the celebrity deaths we’ve witnessed this year, this one is hitting me the hardest. I’m struggling to find words. I make no secret of the fact that I am a geek who... Read more

The Advent Season and the Idolatry of False Persecution

Last updated on: November 25, 2016 at 1:55 pm By Mary Pezzulo

There is one thing and one thing only that makes me sad, about my family’s transferring to the Byzantine Catholic church: I really like my Advent wreath. I have a nice stately faux stone Advent wreath with Celtic knots all over it; it’s my pride and joy, one of the only religious items I’ve ever bought new from a catalog instead of scrounging from the thrift store or painting myself. Every year I’ve gone out to get candles for it.... Read more

Something To Be Thankful For

Last updated on: November 24, 2016 at 6:26 pm By Mary Pezzulo

We were spending Thanksgiving, as we often did, with family– not my bad cousins, who might have been fun, but my father’s side of the family: my eccentric uncle and aunt, a well-to-do attorney and his outspoken liberal feminist college professor wife from New England. My mother disliked my aunt, who was guilty of using inclusive language, not wearing makeup, voting democrat and having only two children. Besides, she wore sneakers with pantsuits. I was and am a dreadful introvert with no... Read more