Tag: The Catholic Thing

The Pope, the Press, and the Present

Pope Leo travelled to four African countries this month, which included not only the usual calls for peace, justice, and brotherhood, but several touching and poignant moments with local communities. Let’s hope that the presence of this…

A Gated Community

Today is commonly known as Good Shepherd Sunday. It puts before us one of the most familiar and beautiful descriptions of God. The prayers at Mass speak of Him as the “brave” and “kind” shepherd. For this reason, today is also World Day of…

The Fact That Corners You

There are things I did during my wife’s final illness that, had you asked me beforehand, I would have said I could never do. Not would not, could not. The distinction matters. When the time came, I did them. Not heroically – there was nothing…

A Note on ‘Roma Aeterna’

Rome, if not quite the “Eternal City,” is nearly 2,800 years old and counting. I first encountered it in the 1970s, visiting my wife’s uncle, a priest who served in the Congregation (now the Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith. What I…

St. Isidore Runs the Numbers

It’s easy to get lost in Biblical numerological speculation, as even a cursory study of the Church Fathers proves. St. Irenaeus attempted to explain the number of the beast from Revelation 13:17–18 by adding the numerical value of the Greek…

Knocking Heads – The Catholic Thing

Last week, King Charles III of England declined to issue an Easter greeting to the people of the church he is supposed to lead, as Defensor fidei.  He does, however, make sure to mark Islamic holidays, which has led some to speculate that he is…

Simeon’s Prophesy v. The Blob

And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. (Luke 2:34) By 1973, there’d been one papal trip to the U.S. –…