If you subscribe to the caricature of devout religious believers as mostly sanctimonious hypocrites, the kind who rake in cash and care about human life only when it is unborn, come visit the doctor here. Dr. Tom Catena, 51, a Catholic missionary from Amsterdam, New York, is the only doctor at the 435-bed Mother of Read more
I don’t recall being asked but herewith I tell my story – proffered on end of a long stick (as Flannery O’Connor once said) so I can snatch some back if anger is provoked. I was born during WWII and educated at Catholic Schools (1948-1960). Our family practiced its faith even if it didn’t really value a Read more
For nearly 350 years, anti-Catholic bias was a reliable and powerful presence in the political and religious culture of the United States. Today, when the Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, for example, insists that Muslim immigrants ‘want to use our freedoms to undermine… freedom’, it can be easy to forget that for most of US history, Read more
Here’s my theory: The shrinking number of American Catholics isn’t just about the hierarchy’s anachronistic politics. It’s also about Catholics seeking, and not finding, an experience of the holy and transcendent — of God — in their Church. Without that, who could be surprised when the Pew Center this month found the Church losing adherents Read more
The Extraordinary Jubilee promulgated by Francis will be the 65th in history. The first was announced by Sixtus V in 1585. The “special” Holy Year does not alter the recurrence of Ordinary Jubilees. The last Pope to open the (cemented shut) Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica for an universal Extraordinary Jubilee was the future Read more
I’m a solo, surrogate parent to a now 9 month old baby girl, 30 hours a week. Her parents have both returned back to the workforce, so I’ve been hired to go into the family home, and look after Molly four days a week. She’s cute, it has to be said. Like, super cute. Especially Read more
It’s hard to convince people gripped by today’s mood of secular gloom that The Sound of Music is a work of abiding artistic genius. The cynic will recall a saccharine musical stretched over almost three hours, involving singing nuns, an impromptu pyjama party, puppet shows and the mawkish strains of Edelweiss. All this soppy madness Read more
Pope Francis, is, according to Cardinal Walter Kasper – a Swabian formerly responsible for ecumenism – neither a traditionalist nor a liberal – “both of which categories have become rather timeworn and hackneyed” – but rather a radical who wants to advance a revolution of forgiveness. Well, that’s what Christians are kind of for, even Read more
Dr. Holly Ordway is Professor of English and Director of the MA in Cultural Apologetics at Houston Baptist University. She holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her academic work focuses on imagination in apologetics, with special attention to the writings of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams; she Read more
The French government has proposed a plan for dialogue with Muslims which is based on a model it uses to liaise with the Catholic Church. The plan would promote an Islam “faithful to the values of the republic”. The official council of French Muslims has been unable to deal with the challenges presented by Islamist Read more