A sub-category of News.
Stranger Things is a science fiction drama set in 1980s small-town America, where the disappearance of a child exposes secret government experiments, a shadow realm known as the Upside Down, and an emerging supernatural menace later personified in the figure of Vecna. Across its seasons, and especially in its later ones, the series blends Cold…
Above: Venice, Italy. Three hundred and fifty years ago, on January 14, 1676, Venice mourned the death of Francesco Cavalli, the eleventh maestro di cappella—that is, the director of music—of St. Mark’s and one of the most influential figures of the Baroque musical period. Born in 1602 in Crema, near Cremona, Cavalli—christened Pier Francesco Caletti-Bruni—was…
I have always enjoyed the challenge provided by that timeless pastime the jigsaw puzzle. The picture puzzle, to employ its alternate name, never remained a puzzle for very long. My patience was tested, but my resolve never dimmed. The result was that I was able to assemble the many pieces into a unified whole. I…
My wife, Rachel Mastrogiacomo, published her book, The Devil in Rome, last month, on December 3, the feast of St. Francis Xavier, patron of foreign missions. In it, she recounts how a charismatic Catholic priest with a secret double life drew her into psychological manipulation and satanic ritual abuse. Through her narrative, she exposes dark…
We often hear or read a word or phrase or we listen to a piece of music and we absorb it immediately without thinking. As Catholics, we have filters — defenses, really — that block or at least alert us to problematic messages. But some problematic messages slip through easily. I now realize that they…
The recent spike in silver prices has been framed, predictably, as a kind of vindication. On social media, metallists celebrate while mocking cryptocurrency advocates; old debates are resurrected as though price action itself had rendered a philosophical verdict. But this framing misses the point entirely. Silver is not “winning.” Bitcoin is not “losing.” What is…
Once upon a time, Hollywood used to produce movies. Real movies, that is. They were like serious novels but on celluloid. They were movies that explored the depths of the human condition, with its soaring peaks and dreadful valleys. It was a time when formidable creativity was placed at the service of truth and beauty….
Grant, Lord, a blessing. Benediction. May God the Father Omnipotent, be to us merciful and clement. ℟. Amen. Reading 4 From the Sermons of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Patriarch of Constantinople. Discourse on the Epiphany, 2 I am not able to restrain the outbursts of my happiness. I feel changed and elated. I forget my…
I know a few dangerous men. One of them dons an apron monthly and makes hundreds of pancakes. Another trains adolescent boys on how to use a compass and other skills to survive in the wilderness. Yet another organizes a weekly prayer schedule for vocations. All of them, you might have guessed, are lay members…
Twenty-six years ago, Niagara Falls, New York, had 14 Roman Catholic parishes. However, due to the fact that the city loses about 1,000 citizens a year (death and a mass-migration to southern climes), as well as a sex scandal that has had a stranglehold on the Diocese of Buffalo since 2002, the number has dwindled…
