I mean, on one hand, I’m really tired of the story, but if I don’t link to the latest I’ll hear “so, the Black Sheepdog (people actually call him that) responded to SOLT, and you didn’t have the guts to link to him!” And if I do link to him, I’ll hear, “why don’t you stop writing about Corapi and get a life?” To me, the “special announcement” that was announced a few days ago and has finally dropped is... Read more
When Michael Jackson was about 11 years old, he recorded a staggeringly mature, prodigiously musical vocal of Who’s Loving You? and I thought I’d never hear another kid who could open up and sing with that sort of soul-stirring freedom. Then I heard my son Buster blasting this from across the house. I thought he’d been listening to one of his favorite gospel singers, and I assumed this was a much older artist. Wow. Right up there with what Jackson... Read more
Katrina Fernandez has one of those posts up that makes you want to cheer and staple to the doors of a church. Kids are already told every day in school their self esteem and self importance is more valued than being literate. Now they get to come to mass and have Fr. Well Meaning reinforce this narcissistic behavior too. Forget that other guy. What’s his name. Oh right. Jesus. It was so bad these masses began to embarrass my son.... Read more
Emails are coming in reporting a state of high tension on various Corapian threads, in anticipation of the Black Sheepdog’s “very special announcement” which is promised today. You gotta give the Dog credit; he knows how to play to an audience and build up the suspense. I’m finding it kind of sad (and troubling) that so many people have made this one man such a huge part of their lives of faith. And I am troubled, too, by our society’s... Read more
Mary Magdalene by Antonio Veneziano graces the cover of this month’s Magnificat Magazine, and once again I find myself as engaged with the wonderful artwork this publication routinely presents, as I am with all the wonderful prayers and readings within. It’s a beautiful Icon, but the glossy Magnificat cover really brings it out in full force, rather like this snapshot, but even better. Here’s what Pierre-Marie Dumont says about the work: Here we see “the sinner of love” represented not... Read more
Bartoli is perhaps the most masterful vocal technician of the modern era. Not the biggest voice, not the creamiest, but my goodness, what staggering control, what flawless ownership she takes of the music. Catch the Ave Maria at .38; do you know how difficult it is to hit that note with sweetness and restraint? It’s much easier to belt it out than to coddle it so gently. Awesome. Read more
Well, after hanging back on this story in order to verify it, it does appear — via The SOLT’s own website — that the society did release a statement today that reads, in part: As the Society was engaging [a fact-finding] team, Fr. Corapi filed a civil lawsuit against his principal accuser. He contended that she had defamed him and breached her contract. The contract, according to Corapi’s lawsuit, contained a provision binding the woman to silence about him. He... Read more
My column at First Things today is about walking on The Diamond Path, a road some of us learned about as children, after a brazen caper: Flashback, forty-some years: as my friends and I prepare to make our first confessions God is very much on all our minds, as are the notions of sin and shame and forgiveness. Contrary to modern thinking, we six year-olds are not little dopes incapable of comprehending moral concepts. Knowing that we will soon be... Read more
As Tug McGraw used to say, “ya gotta believe!” +++++ Also: On true and distorted notions of freedom Read more
Freedom seeks purpose: it requires conviction. True freedom presupposes the search for truth – for the true good – and hence finds its fulfillment precisely in knowing and doing what is right and just. Truth, in other words, is the guiding norm for freedom, and goodness is freedom’s perfection. Aristotle defined the good as “that at which all things aim”, and went on to suggest that “though it is worthwhile to attain the end merely for one man, it is... Read more
The Anchoress
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In