A sub-category of News.
Three years ago, my wife and I received a stamped postcard in our mailbox inviting our children to participate in the newly-founded After School Satan Club at our public elementary school up the street. Thank God our kids were, and continue to be, homeschooled; but I was nonetheless more than mildly uncomfortable with the thought…
Are you a tech optimist or pessimist? Do you think our advancing technology—in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics, and space technology—will make our world better or worse? And do you think the new technologies of the last two centuries have more helped or harmed the advancement of mankind? I’ve found that the…
Above: Benedict XIV presents his encyclical Ex Omnibus to the Comte de Stainville Étienne François, later the Duc de Choiseul. 350 years ago, on March 31, 1675, Bologna Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini was born in Bologna. He would later become Pope Benedict XIV, a figure whom Pope Pius XII described as “the greatest of his century,…
Something miraculous occurred during the 1970s at a university campus on the plains of Kansas. Scores of young students turned away from the heathenism they’d been raised in and embraced Catholicism. Many even became monks, nuns, or priests; a few were eventually consecrated bishops. Countless others became devout teachers, parents, and writers. What precipitated this…
I didn’t set out to learn about anti-Semitism from Palestinians. But I did. My organization the Vulnerable People Project has worked for years to serve vulnerable communities everywhere, from Afghanistan to Chinese-occupied East Turkestan to Nigeria to Gaza. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the first step to defending the vulnerable is…
I will guess that we have all heard the explanation of why this Sunday is called Laertare (“Rejoice”) and why we have rose (rosacea) vestments and that the Roman Station is at the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. St. John Henry Newman wrote of this church: Today’s prayers and antiphons focus on Jerusalem…
Above: Segway Media Mobile Advertising Shields. In the technology world, scaling is vital to success. An entrepreneur might have a wonderful idea for a new product, but if its design is such that it can’t be used by a large consumer base, it’s doomed to obscurity. The Segway is an example of a technology that…
It has long been a commonplace among commentators of the Confessions that the first nine books are about Augustine’s ardent search for truth, leaving reflections on its meaning for the remaining four books. In other words, now that he’s determined to cleave to Christ, to commune with Him in the most intimate way in the…
Above: rural Saskatchewan. My wife, kids, and I used to live over two hours away from the nearest traditional Latin Mass, an 8:00 am offering in a large—by Saskatchewan standards—city. Getting there was tough, but we tried to attend frequently. Over the years these attempts became increasingly burdensome. Gas prices hurt—hotel bills, when needed, even…
If you asked the average American why “blue laws” once existed, he’d likely stare at you in confusion. “What are ‘blue laws’”? he might ask. Those of us beyond a certain age remember when certain things could not be sold on a Sunday in America. In the New Jersey of my childhood, there were aisles…
