I ran into a fascinating interview on Pray Tell Blog with Dr. Tia Noelle Pratt, a sociologist of religion who is currently completing a major study of African American Catholics. It was published as part of Black Catholic History Month. I recommend the whole thing, but here I want to focus on a short response that reinforced my own thoughts, where she touches on the idea of a white space. You mentioned the concept of an “ultra-white space” at SSSR.... Read more
To follow up on my post yesterday on the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, I want to share a column by Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh. It turns out that the Bishop knew well one of the men killed–as Michael Sean Winters points out, that this is unremarkable is one of the great consequences of Vatican II. (Hat tip to MSW for sharing this.) Here is one beautiful passage: This massacre is both deeply personal for us and... Read more
I've long had a personal rule that I never debate strict five-point Calvinists online because it is a pointless exercise ... I'm now adding Trump supporters to that list. Read more
I have been thinking a lot about antisemitism lately. Obviously, this was sparked by the killing of 11 Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27. Had it just been the shooting, I think I would have moved on–sadly, we have become desensitized to mass shootings in America. Years ago, after the execution of Michael Ross in CT, a BBC reporter asked me why protesting his execution was so important: “After all, what’s one more execution... Read more
Granted, it’s never entirely not about the issues. The lawmakers we elect will invariably make decisions that will affect any number of human lives in any number of ways, and we the electorate know this. And yet it is for that very reason, in a bizarre twist of political irony befitting the absurdity of these times, that the issues our would-be lawmakers are pontificating on with apocalyptic fervor in their bids for our votes are presently of secondary concern. Secondary, that... Read more
Today being the anniversary of my confirmation, I decided to mark the day by going to daily Mass. The celebrant began his homily at the end of the gospel reading: “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” He asked us to think about our blessings: the blessing of life, of health, of faith – and in the United States, a standard of living surpassing that... Read more
For October my parish is doing a short program on the Eucharist, and this has led me to listen a little more closely to the Eucharistic prayers. This past Sunday, a couple words leapt out at me: “oblation” and “sacrifice.” Oblation is an obscure word in English, and my guess is that in the previous English translation, it was translated as “offering.” And in fact the new translation uses both words for the same underlying Latin word (see below).... Read more
On Sunday, Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador, will be canonized by Pope Francis in a ceremony in St. Peter Square. Earlier this year, Plough Publishing House (which, in my opinion, is by far the best Christian publisher on the planet right now), released a short collection of Bishop Oscar Romero's writings and homilies under the title The Scandal of Redemption. For those interested in the life, witness, and martyrdom of Romero (and we all should be), the book is an invaluable companion. Read more
I saw a 90-minute wait at a Hertz counter as a kind of warning wobble in the system, both for the company itself as well as the nation. If we can’t get rental cars right, I thought, we’re in trouble. Read more
Vox Nova is pleased to welcome a guest post by long time reader Joseph Georges. It is now clear to many that the scandal of clerical sexual abuse is the most serious crisis the church has faced since the Reformation. (Massimo Faggioli in Commonweal, 8/8/18). “This summer has been anything but a church picnic for us. It’s been a disaster, one crisis after another. And as I try my best to listen to people, I hear them express very eloquently... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In