The Catholic Thing
‘Joan of Arc’: My Favorite Painting
Many readers know of my passion for art, especially painting. I’m particularly fond of the work of the great Catholic artists Caravaggio, Rubens, and Vermeer, and some examples of their work are in the collection of my favorite museum, the…
My Hope for Christian Europe
French existentialist Gabriel Marcel called hope “the stuff of which the soul is made.” Dante marked the entrance to Hell by its absence: Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate (“Abandon all hope, you who enter here.”) Civilizations are not…
My Hope for Christian Europe
French existentialist Gabriel Marcel called hope “the stuff of which the soul is made.” Dante marked the entrance to Hell by its absence: Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate (“Abandon all hope, you who enter here.”) Civilizations are not…
My Hope for Christian Europe
French existentialist Gabriel Marcel called hope “the stuff of which the soul is made.” Dante marked the entrance to Hell by its absence: Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate (“Abandon all hope, you who enter here.”) Civilizations are not…
Found and Finding, Bought and Buying
Two of the parables set before us today are traditionally understood as lessons in the cost of discipleship. The treasure buried in the field and the pearl of great price signify the Kingdom of God. (See Matthew 13:44-46) They are worth spending…
Kids These Days – The Catholic Thing
I’m old enough now to be the sort of person who will occasionally observe, in all apparent earnestness, that being around young people makes me feel young at heart. This is a concession to the realities of middle age which I am loath to make,…
The Problem of Evil and the Firmness of Faith
I was listening to the Bible in a Year Podcast when these lines came up from 2 Chronicles 28:3: “ burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom…
No Salvation Outside the Church
How many of these can you identify? Marcionites, Montanists, Sabellians, Donatists, Quartodecimans, Pneumatomachians, Apollonarians, Monophysites, Nestorians, Waldensians. These are all groups that broke from the Church, insisting that they…
An ‘Odyssey’ for Our Time
I don’t often comment on films or – truth be told – usually care much about them. I leave that to those who do care and are much better at it. (See under: Miner, Brad.) Most movies seem, to me, to have a greater cultural impact than they…
Of the Ecclesial Crisis and Winter Bread
The excommunications issued to the six bishops involved in the Society of St. Pius X’s consecrations are easy to defend. Pope Leo told the SSPX not to consecrate more bishops. They did it. He’s the supreme authority in the Church. They are not.…