Archive
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Articles
Mary and the Midwife
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception holds that Mary was preserved from original sin from the moment of her conception “by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God,...
Vocation in the Second Half of Your Life
When I was a college chaplain, the weekend in late August when parents dropped off their children for the schoolyear always presented an interesting pastoral opportunity. While gathered on...
What Mercy Is
Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Lifeby walter kasperpaulist, 288 pages, $29.95 Recently, there’s been an odd conversation in Catholic circles about the nature...
Taming the Vindictive Passions
Getting Even: Forgiveness and Its Limits.by Jeffrie G. Murphy.Oxford University Press. 152 pp. $21. In 1995, at ceremonies marking the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World...
The Tribunal of Mercy
It is surprising, given the events of the last year, to imagine that some members of the Roman Catholic clergy actively seek to be ordained a bishop, and even...
An Almost Christian Fantasy
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman Knopf, 326 pages, $26 The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman Knopf, 326 pages, $26 The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman Knopf, 518 pages,...
Evangelicals in the Church of Mary
“The Protestants were out at the pro“life ball,” my Catholic friend told me, with some agitation. “They gave us all evangelical tracts.” He was talking about a fundraising ball...
Sex and the Married Missileer
At Minot Air Force base in Minot, North Dakota, a wife kisses her husband goodbye, knowing that he will be spending the night alone in close quarters with a...
Separation Anxiety
The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity.By Leon J. Podles.Spence. 350 pp. $27.95 Leon Podles has his finger on something very important. A symptom of the problem Podles has...
“Saving” the Poor
The poor will always be with us. Yet, pace Cain, we have an obligation to look after our brothers. As we well know, poverty today is too often accompanied...
Eroticism Unbound
Take out your keys and look at your key chain. Are you thinking about sex now? I ask this question because of something I read on a recent trip...
Questioning Everything?
Ever since Galileo, the received wisdom has held that an “expert” is somebody who “thinks scientifically,” as can be seen in the drive to label every discipline a “science.”...
