David Mills

One last item on the subject of praying for Christopher Hitchens, which I discussed here and a few days later here . The idea enraged some of our atheist readers and baffled even a few Christians. I bring it up again to pass on something sent me by our frequent contributor Father Edward Oakes. . . . . Continue Reading »

In Ecumenism. The True Story of a War That Never Was , the Italian journalist Sandro Magister reports that “The patriarchs of Moscow and Constantinople threatened a complete break with Rome in 2003. The pretext was Ukraine. But at the Vatican, Kasper and Ratzinger defused the danger.” . . . . Continue Reading »

Today in “On the Square,” R. R. Reno examines the Catholic Church After the Scandals . The secular response to the scandals makes obvious something about the Church’s new situation in Western societies, and therefore the new challenge she faces — a situation and challenge her . . . . Continue Reading »

Although “One of the shibboleths of the Church of the Holy Screen is that iPhones, Twitter, and Kindle make our age unique, uncharted territory,” observes Daniel J. Flynn in Unplugged , summarizing William Powers’ thesis in Hamlet’s Blackberry , “Man has been there, . . . . Continue Reading »

“To integrate abortion so that it’s a seamless part of health care for women — embraced rather than shunned . . .   is the future,” declares the author of yesterday’s cover story in the New York Times Magazine .  But it’s not, writes our managing . . . . Continue Reading »

In a provocative “On the Square” article today, Stuart Koehl declares that the Church should be An Independent Witness to Marriage by ceasing to act of as agent of the state in marrying people. In response to conservative writer R. Emmett Tyrrell’s suggestion that we solve the . . . . Continue Reading »

A few readers of my Prayers for Christopher Hitchens made the astounding charges that praying for him, and for his conversion as well as his deliverance from cancer — which are both forms of healing — is uncharitable or presumptuous. Among the realities these respondents missed is the . . . . Continue Reading »

Christopher Barnekov, who runs Scandinavia House in Fort Wayne, sends this report on Tuesday’s election of a new president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which he called “a triumph of the Lutheran wing of the Lutheran Church.” The LCMS is the largest and best known of . . . . Continue Reading »

“He drifted on the water, the man dozing on the inner tube, and didn’t wake till he nudged the wall of scree and shattered rocks at the far end of the reservoir,” begins Drifting Toward the Rocks . Not that there is much of a current in that little lake, formed by piling earth and . . . . Continue Reading »

Aids scientists call for month of sex abstinence , reports the Guardian .  (Thanks to Worldwide Religious News for the link.) Leading experts fighting the world’s worst Aids epidemic have called on African leaders to head a month-long sexual abstinence campaign, saying it could reduce . . . . Continue Reading »