The hosts of nations were arrayed against him. He was beset by anguish, sorrow, and betrayal. Karl von Habsburg was a king in exile, a father separated from his children, a man of peace in a time of war. The last years of his short life were a long Lent in which he, an emperor,…

I’m always leery of people who refer to writers as “prophetic.” For example, Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming,” which is indeed a great poem by perhaps the most widely-read poet of the 20th century, is often called a “prophecy.” But of what? I mean to say, if you predict something bad or evil is going…

“What is the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist.” This slightly nasty joke exists in many languages, an indication of how the underlying issues are not limited to isolated pockets of the global Catholic Church. Similar jibes exist in other churches, mostly those affected by liturgical reforms comparable…