2026
The ‘Polar Unity’ of the Two Forms of the Roman Rite
The motu proprio Summorum Pontificum (2007) of Pope Benedict XVI introduced into the contemporary ecclesial vocabulary a distinction that has since become both fruitful and contentious: the “Ordinary Form” and the “Extraordinary Form” of the one…
Free Spirits – The Catholic Thing
In an effort to understand Hieronymus Bosch, I have been reading about the “movers and shakers” who first conceived of our modern world. Bosch presents the fantasies of these heretics, I think, without being entirely a heretic himself. It is…
When the New Things Come Again
I have what I like to think of as a healthy obsession with bulbs. I don’t mean the kind you screw into an electric lamp. I mean flower bulbs: tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, crocuses, snowdrops, and the like. I bury them in the dirt in the autumn.…
Poetry in Church – The Catholic Thing
Augustine admits in Confessions that when he was young, he did not like the Scriptures; he found the language ugly and uninspiring. He preferred Cicero and Virgil. Worse yet, some things in the Scriptures caused him to think Christianity was…
Saint Patrick Charms the Snakes
You may have heard the legend that Saint Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland, but I’m here to tell you it ain’t, exactly, 100-percent true. Now it’s true that Ireland has no snakes today and it’s also true that Saint Patrick is the one that…
The Church Is Not For Burning
When Notre Dame de Paris almost burned down in 2019, owing to a fire started (accidentally?) by workmen, the world was stunned by the near loss of one of the West’s iconic monuments – and a religious landmark at that. But churches around the…
Lumen Christi
However fervent or fitful, our Lenten journey is moving toward its culmination. Of the many symbolic riches of the Paschal Triduum perhaps none resonates so affectively as the raising high of the Paschal Candle in the darkened church. And the…
Guardian Angels: Not Just Kid-Stuff
Like many people years ago, as a child, my brother and I, together with our dad, always prayed in our “night prayers” the traditional prayer to our guardian angels: “Angel of God, my guardian dear to whom God’s love entrusts me here, ever this…
Redeeming Nietzsche’s ‘Last Man’ – The Catholic Thing
Friedrich Nietzsche is notorious for his theory of the Übermensch, the superior man who rises above the constraints of morality and mediocrity. But his theory of the “last man” has proven to be far more prophetic – and relevant. A kind of…
Athletes Acknowledging God – The Catholic Thing
The New York Times reported the words, but the Wall Street Journal didn’t. When Bam Adebayo, two days ago, was asked to describe the moment when he scored 83 points in an NBA game, second only to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points, he said, “Man, I…