A sub-category of News.
One day, when I was a senior in high school, I went into the lavatory and was followed by a junior whose name I knew, though I didn’t know anything else about him. He was a quiet sort. As I was washing my hands, he approached me and asked me if I would like—something the…
An Excerpt from Vladimir Solovyov, Russia and the Universal Church, trans. Rees (London: Centenary Press, 1948), 96-98. It was not Simon’s apostleship that involved his change of name, for the change, though already predicted, was not made at the time of the choice and solemn sending forth of the Twelve. All with the single…
In a little book written a couple of years after the 1992 release of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, recalled a postcard he had received from his great friend and mentor Hans Urs von Balthasar. The message on the card…
I watched the EWTN interview of Bishop Strickland last night and had nightmares while I slept. The bishop, articulate and, to my mind, innocent of all irony, recounted what had happened in his process of deposition and professed his recognition of the pope’s authority and his obedience to his removal from office. The sincerity of…
One of the most common statements I’ve heard from Catholics over the past decade is, “We should give the pope the benefit of the doubt.” When someone criticizes Pope Francis for a questionable statement or action, you inevitably see some Catholics jumping in to say we need to give him the “benefit of the doubt.”…
Above: Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), Russia’s greatest philosopher. I will never forget my encounter with Vladimir Solovyov over ten years ago. I was living in an apartment with my Russian Orthodox friend and a few others. I was Antiochian Orthodox but we were both hoping to become Orthodox monks. We would pray the long monastic prayers…
At the recent global AI conference held in London in early November, Elon Musk gave an interview to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in which he warned that, pretty soon, the technology might become so advanced it would effectively put the entire human race out of work. According to Musk, as AI evolves, “there will…
Dear Tim, Thanks so much for your response to my recent essay regarding Eucharistic Revival and the Eucharistic Congress. You were so openhanded in offering me the benefit of your erudition and experience that I’m moved to reciprocate. I’ve been a communicator as a teacher, preacher, author, and broadcaster for 33 years, and my experience…
Above: portrait by Sebastiano del Piombo. Five centuries ago today, on November 18, 1523, after fifty days of conclave, “the most unfortunate of the Popes” was elected: Clement VII, whose original name was Giulio de’ Medici. Born in Florence 45 years earlier, in 1513 he was archbishop of Florence, and in 1517 he was cardinal…
I’m increasingly happy to even read a good book, as my life turns to parenthood. So, it’s not often that I write a book review—and almost never that I write an unprompted one. But every once in a while, there comes a book that deserves to be better known, and Dom Dysmas de Lassus’ Abuses…
