I am about to start a conspiracy theory. It has nothing to do with the gold standard. I’m too poor to know or care much about that. The moon landing? Forget it. The last guy who tried that got punched by Buzz Aldrin. I may be a fool, but I’m not that kind of fool. No, this has to do with something that affects my life very directly and profoundly, something I deal with every day. It has to do... Read more
BY MAX LINDENMAN Everybody loves nuns. A priest has to get lit up by a death squad before anyone will give him credit for parting his hair in a straight line, and the Church is still too unused to deacons to have set them any reliable benchmarks for success. But if one smile from a woman religious can’t melt your heart, then brother, you ain’t got one. I am no exception to this general rule. The person who’s come closest... Read more
Everyone likes to make fun of modern helicopter parents. Get a group of 40-ish men reminiscing about their childhoods and you’ll hear things like, “These poor bubble-wrapped Oprafied kids! Why, in my day, we poured ground glass on our pancakes and chewed the dishes like breath mints. After we finished, I’d grab my Kenner stainless-steel tomahawk, my brother would grab his Hasbro single-action Colt Navy revolver, and we’d play cowboys and Indians. Once my dad told me, ‘Son, I’d rather... Read more
Rick Welts, president and chief executive of my hometown basketball team, the Phoenix Suns, is gay. Since Mr. Welts is 58, this is not news. The newsworthy part is, he now feels confident that professional sports can tolerate openly gay men in the front office, and ultimately, on the playing fields. As the Times reports: In many work environments, this would qualify as a so-what moment. But until now, Mr. Welts, 58, who has spent 40 years in sports, rising... Read more
I always figured I appreciated a tragic female — Mary, Queen of Scots, the Black Dahlia, Edie Sedgwick — as much as the next ghoul. But when it comes to Sarah Palin, I seem to have overlooked a deep seam of tragedy that my colleagues in the Fourth Estate have been mining for years. Quite by chance, I discovered that not one, but two articles titled “The Tragedy of Sarah Palin” have appeared in high-profile publications over the past thirty-one... Read more
Let me begin by sayingt that, if Fruit of the Loom put John Allen, Jr.’s face on Underoos, I’d be first in line for a pair — and where I live, nighttime temperatures get up into the nineties, so that’s really saying something. The man is the Man, the undisputed mack daddy, prince and heavyweight champeen of all Catholic journalists. In National Catholic Reporter, he advises us to “keep an eye on” Cardinal Angelo Scola who is currently presiding as... Read more
The editors of America Magazine have slipped on their shoulder pads and sharpened up their cleats in order to tackle runaway vulgarity among our youngsters: The veteran Catholic editor A. E. P. (Ed) Wall begins his Easter message: “Jesus Christ, whose name is heard in careless expletives by the vocabulary-challenged in TV and film, we know you as Eternal.” He’s on to something. The status of a language determines the status of a culture. And contemporary culture seems less capable... Read more
Hey, gang. My name’s Max Lindenman, and I’ll be your Anchoress today. Elizabeth, your regularly scheduled Anchoress, is down for the count. I have taken it upon myself to play her Yiddishe mama, and beg her to see a doctor. She has promised she will. I told her, “Someday you should have an editor who gives you tsuris like you’re giving me!” Anyway, moving right along… Teasing out all the implications of the Dallas Charter is going to take a... Read more
______ Pat Gohn, whose Among Women Podcasts approaches 100 episodes, has an excellent piece on The Bullet in Our Lady’s Crown Read more
The Word and Silence Glitters Gold Jerid miller’s piece on Verbum Domini landing at The Catholic Answer in the same month I debut Domine exaudi is one those small-but-happy synchronicities that make you feel you’re being looked after. Small bites of Pope Benedict XVI’s beautifully wrought exhortation, taken in concert with other sacred reading, seem to flavor all of my study with a consoling steadiness that builds from a single line to which I keep returning: “The realist is the... Read more
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