Why did we all think we were so smart? The 20th century brought mankind no closer to the truth, no nearer to happiness than it was at the end of the 19th. Arguably, things got worse. There were countless medical advances, including “miracle” antibiotics, yet we ended the century beset by the worst contagion since the Black Death. It’s called AIDS, and while it may be under relative control in the affluent USA, it is decimating Africa. The United Nations... Read more

A child of the 1960s, an aging peacenik, I imagine that I smell suspiciously liberal to some of my more conservative Catholic friends (and most of my Catholic friends are decidedly conservative, hewing closely to Church teachings on social issues). Confronted with their adamant views and with the Church’s unequivocal teaching on abortion, on women in the priesthood, and on other related issues, I have known for a while that the time would come when I would have to come... Read more

I imagine that all of us have angels in our lives. We may not see them, but I imagine it’s hard to escape their influence. Not all angels are dressed in shimmering white. Not all of them have wings. Some are bossy (the archangels), some whisper and flutter. Some fight (Michael). Some fall (Lucifer). The whole business of angels is complicated. One of the most significant angels in my life is Cesareo Pelaez, 76 today and battling the consequences of... Read more

Born in 1951, I have lived during six papacies—Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI—four Italians, a Pole, and a German, six men in white walking around in a field of Roman numerals. Although John XXIII is already “Blessed” and John Paul II was a paradigm-shifting statesman, for my money, Benedict XVI is the best pope of my lifetime.I think of these popes as musicians. John XXIII was like a jovial folk... Read more

Dorothy Day was more my political cup of tea: a hunger-striking, pro–Civil Rights, anti–Vietnam War, out-on-the-picket-lines kind of gal. Funny that I didn’t know about her in the 1960s, but only discovered her as a fellow convert last year. A radical socialist writer in her twenties, Day ended her first pregnancy with an abortion she later regretted deeply. When she became pregnant again, by a man she loved, she chose to have the child baptized in the Catholic Church even... Read more

There are many very smart Catholics and I admire smart people. Don’t you? William F. Buckley may have spoken with marbles in his mouth. He may have been a thorn in the side of the antiwar movement during the Vietnam years and I was on the peacenik side, but I always thought he was one smart dude. Imagine my surprise to learn that he was also a devout Catholic. Here’s a beautiful line from his autobiography of faith, “Nearer, My... Read more

I just found the latest interview between Stephen Colbert and Fr. James Martin, author of My Life with the Saints. It was this book that tipped my scales and led to my becoming a Catholic. (See “For All the Saints.”) Both Colbert and Martin are Catholics. The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Turning to Religion – Jim Martin www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests Read more

Every morning at seven I sit in the same pew. When I first began attending mass as a non-Catholic eighteen months ago, I sat on the opposite side of the nave, halfway back on the Epistle side. In our church we call this St. Joseph’s aisle because a statue of the saint watches from the head of it. Back then we had a newly ordained assistant priest who was a native of The Congo. He had a thick accent that... Read more