Catholicism
‘Third-Party’ Punishment is Not Catholic
Earlier this year a meta-analysis in Advances in Psychological Science found a correlation between having a heightened sense of self-righteousness and what is called “third-party punishment,” meaning punishing someone for a perceived infraction,…
Devolution a la Mode – The Catholic Thing
In the pilot episode of the old television show The Waltons, the six Walton children have gathered outdoors in the cold and the snow, where a lady from a religious charity is handing out Christmas presents to the littler ones. The presents have…
A Century of Catholic Education
In 1896, Episcopal clergyman John Byron Diman founded St. George’s School in Newport, R.I. It became one of the so-called Saint Grottlesex schools, that name being a portmanteau of St. George’s, St. Mark’s, St. Paul’s, Groton, and Middlesex:…
The Sorrows of Young Zoomers
With many members of the Gen Z cohort (b. 1997-2012) coming of age and entering public life, it behooves older generations to understand them better. I can recall the many essays, books, and movies examining my own generation, the millennials…
The Day Before Disaster – The Catholic Thing
“We know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good” (Romans 8:28). Disasters must come in this fallen world, and maybe they will come to us. There are relatively few sayings of Jesus which the Holy Spirit saw fit to…
Medicinal Notes on Inter-Religious Dialogue
For three of my 27 years on diocesan staff, I had the attached duty of ecumenical and inter-religious affairs. It was great work. We had good relations with local Protestant and Latter-Day Saint communities; cordial discussions with local…
First, Do No Harm? – The Catholic Thing
A little over a year ago, I took my aged father for a specialist visit. The appointment, which I still recall with painful clarity, put me in mind of the Anglo-Saxon poem known simply as “The Ruin.” The manuscript is damaged, so what remains is…
Work, the World, and the Human Person
Through work, man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to elevating unceasingly the cultural and moral level of the society within which he lives in community with those who…
Caravaggio’s ‘The Incredulity of St. Thomas’
There was once a monument in Rome called Milliarium Aureum: the Golden Milestone. The Emperor Augustus erected it in the Forum in about 20 B.C. All distances in Ancient Rome were said to be marked from (or to) that spot. There’s still a round…
Holy Hypocrisy – The Catholic Thing
In a world where formal pronouns have disappeared from almost every language, and where good manners are not merely rare but actively ridiculed, we are gradually turning into grotesque versions of Shrek. Even the dwarves from Tolkien’s tales, as…