Columns
Blinding Wealth – The Catholic Thing
The haunting story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is perhaps best understood in reverse, through the lens of where we find them at the end of the story. The status of each in the afterlife – the rich man’s suffering and Lazarus’s…
Rich Young Saints for Our Time
How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! Is that true? Jesus said it (Mark 10:23) to His Apostles after the encounter with the rich young man, so it must be true. In affluent countries where everyone, even the…
The Abuse of ‘Sanctuary’ – The Catholic Thing
“Sanctuary” has returned to the American political vocabulary, especially in the context of cities and states declaring they will not allow local resources – police or social services – to cooperate with federal authorities in identifying or…
I Was Shot with Charlie Kirk
It’s from a kind of compulsion that this week I write on Charlie Kirk. I keep seeing in my mind again and again the images. It is a brilliant day, the kind of day we live for in the summer. It’s glorious to be alive. He is smiling and…
On Dignity and Dependence – The Catholic Thing
The philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, who died this past spring, is best remembered for his book After Virtue (1981). But his book Dependent, Rational Animals (1999) is a work of equal value. In it, he argued that dependence on others is…
AI: Nearness to the Beast
In 1984, as a young man of nineteen, I returned from a year of testing my vocation to the religious life. We had been deprived, or rather liberated, from the television for that period. On my short vacation afterwards, I went off to Blockbuster…