Archive
More than thirty years of First Things articles at your fingertips.
Articles
Last Day Reflections
Reflecting on the last day of the State Visit, I indulge a couple of personal thoughts. First, the Rite of Beatification took place near Coventry which, as Pope Benedict...
The “London Street Sweeper” Terrorists are Not Algerian Methodists
Scotland Yard did its job in arresting five “terrorists.” The press has not been so alert. First reports spoke of “London street sweepers” as though they might have been...
A Graceful and Elegant Beginning
The graceful and even elegant beginning of the state visit has only been made trying by the incessant banter of commentators who think themselves obliged to fill in every...
The Anticipation and Anxiety of Speculation
As the papal trip moves from theory to fact, and the mental clock begins to strike: it is about to happen. Up to now, all has been the anticipation...
The Liturgical Experts’ Long Tassels
Under the avalanche of commentary on the new translation of the Ordinary Form of the Mass, just approved by the Vatican, I poke my head above the erudite criticisms,...
Archbishop Dolan and The New York Times
One assumes that The New York Times would have been glad to receive an Op-Ed article from the new Archbishop of New York. The Archdiocese of New York is...
De Linguae Latinae Causa
Salve Iosephe , Litterae de lingua latina scripta in Res Primae accipio tuus qui post-electronica fero. Ut praeclarissimus magister Mantuae dixit, ut mihi iam verum videatur illud esse quod...
The Spirit of Vatican II
A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975 by Piero Marini Liturgical Press, 205 pages, $15.95 (paper) To young people today, Vatican II reposes in a...
Rutler: Words and Reality
Lewis Carroll anticipated the word games that demagogues play when he had Humpty Dumpty say, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean,...
