Well, when I announced that Mark Shea was bringing his blog over, I told you to watch for more developments — at least four more, possibly ten. Well, here is the second: Katrina Fernandez, whom you might know as the Catholic-Cannonball-Award-conferring, art-loving, gut-busting Crescat, has announced that she’ll be moving her always-entertaining blog to Patheos, within the next day or two — she is unpacking as you read this! You can take a gander at where the new design is... Read more
This stomach flu or bug, or food poisoning or whatever has left me a bit drained. I’m out of here for the day. Hopefully no one’s comments will go into spam or moderation, but if they do, I’ll catch them later. Read more
Contrary to some of the hyped-up rhetoric I see in my email, and in the comboxes of those covering the lastest dustup between a prominent priest (who frankly seems to need a rest) and his bishop (who has asked him to take some time for recollection and prayer), ecclesial oversight and accountability to the bishop to which you’ve vowed obedience is not martrydom. But if we needed an example that genuine martrydom is still happening, we might pay attention to... Read more
Don’t know if it’s a case of good intentions gone awry, or a genuine motive of greed and the sort of crony capitalism we still see in force, but I think it’s true that a “poor” neighborhood is not especially a bad neighborhood. I once lived in an area some characterized as a “slum.” It was a friendly place where people looked out for each other. This neighborhood seemed really healthy in its sense of community, and it seemed to... Read more
A long while ago, I wrote about — in separate pieces — about my birth mother and father. With the distance of time, we learn mercy, and certainly when we have children of our own — upon whom we practice parenthood with many mistakes and lots of regrets — we come to realize that the broken people who raised us (in my case people whose childhood was full of material and spiritual deprivation) literally did the best they could, and... Read more
It got almost no coverage in the mainstream media — and what coverage there was generally was of the “protesters will greet the pope” variety that prefaced his enormously successful visit, last year, to the United Kingdom — but Pope Benedict XVI was quietly impressive and persuasive in Germany, last week. The world may little have noted it, but the truth is, all of Benedict’s papal visits have been those very quiet triumphs. A few years back Spengler, writing in... Read more
Running out to store, I heard Rush Limbaugh criticizing Chris Christie for using the word “compromise” too often in his speech last night. Said Rush — who wants nothing of compromise in our governance: “Winners don’t compromise with losers.” Well, alright, I guess that’s one point of view, but it seems to me the man wants to have his cake and eat it too. He (and I, and many others) criticized President Obama for saying at his first meeting with... Read more
Almost nothing in the theaters is urging me to plunk down ten bucks, but The Way is, and Santiago Ramos’ review is just whetting my appetite even more: El Camino de Santiago, or the “Way of St. James,” is a pilgrimage route in Spain which stretches for around 500 miles, if you start from the most popular starting point in the French Pyrenees. The path leads right up to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in the Spanish region of... Read more
Lisa Mladinich on the stage fright of teaching religion: The afternoon I registered my daughter for her first-grade religion class, I had no intention of signing on as a teacher. I was too busy writing a novel and working as a freelance puppeteer. I simply made the mistake of volunteering to “help out,” since I’d be waiting around for her anyway, and got roped into teaching her class. I walked out of the parish center with my heart in my... Read more
Seem to have picked up a tummy bug. Check back later — working a bit slow, today! Read more
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