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…