A sub-category of News.
It goes without saying that Sen. J.D. Vance won the vice presidential debate on Tuesday. True to form, he responded to his predictably hostile moderators with confidence and grace. All throughout, he showed off his intelligence, empathy, and personal discipline. He even made his opponent feel all warm and fuzzy by the end of it….
A holy and learned confessor once advised a penitent to enter each day into a prayerful reading of the Old Testament. “It’s good,” he would say, “to have Iron Age words in your mouth every day.” Especially these days, he might have added, when so few either read or pray at all. We live in…
Everyone, at least every serious Christian, is intimately familiar with the story of Christ and the apostles while they were journeying through the region of Caesarea Philippi. It is there Christ asked His disciples if they knew who He really was, and it is there that Peter identified Him as the Messiah and the Son…
Above: The Guardian Angel by Marcantonio Franceschini (1648 – 1729) My spiritual background is an example of how much our secular culture and our ailing Church today leave many like me either skeptical of or oblivious to the angels. In my childhood and student years, steeped in the Enlightenment-influenced secular education of California public K-12…
In 1927, Yocundo Durán was on his way home in Chihuahua, Mexico, when he crossed paths with a Federal. The Federal general recognized him as a Knight of Columbus and summarily ordered his execution. Durán’s bullet-torn body was delivered to his family later that day. The prior year, the “Calles Law” had been passed in…
Such were the words of the controversial, and at times provocative, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who warned that in fighting evil one risks becoming the very evil he is fighting. This is something the United States of America stands accused of for its unconditional support for the State of Israel, including the latter’s past human…
Above: The Three Archangels and Tobias by Francesco Botticini (1446–1498) As I pointed out in an article at OnePeterFive a couple of years ago, “The Annunciation and the Subtle Use of Gospels in the Old Roman Rite,” one of the most striking features of the ancient Roman Rite is the way in which it repeats…
Italy and the Italians have long had a well-deserved reputation for crafting goods of superior quality, from clothing and food to cultural artifacts such as painting and sculpture. The United States has never attained a similar status, instead being known for technological and mass-market innovations. In short, Italy leads in quality and the U.S. in…
What is interesting about the recent statement in the San Diego diocese banning homeschoolers from using parish facilities is that it opens with, “parents are the first teachers of their children,” yet it concludes with, “homeschooling is not inherently a ministry of the parish.” If parents are the first teachers of their children, shouldn’t that…
My favorite character in the Lord of the Rings has always been Boromir (although sometimes Samwise vies for the crown). I consider the fall of Boromir as perhaps the most emotional and gripping scene in the entire trilogy. Boromir represents the race of men, both in the book and in real life. He is strong…
