Elizabeth Scalia

A few years ago I had occasion to spend a few days in Vienna. The beautiful city of museums and music remains a favorite but a forlorn one; its charming avenues and architecture and nightly concerts could not fully distract from the sleepy sense of diminishment that hung over the city, like the acquiescence of a cancer patient who has decided to forgo the next round of treatment… . Continue Reading »

A too-long-undiagnosed bout with Lyme Disease has left me challenged with arthritis and some neurological damage. The arthritis has its uses: I can predict rain, and the pain gives me something to offer up in prayer, or as penance. Not so the neurological issues. At the peak of my illness I was unable to figure out how to do the dishes … Continue Reading »

The patient had pulmonary hypertension, a rare and often fatal condition in which a pregnancy can cause the death of the mother. Sister Margaret McBride was the on-call member of the Catholic hospital’s ethics committee. She was part of a group, including the patient and doctors, who approved the termination of the pregnancy… . Continue Reading »

Rocco Palmo has early excerpts of some spontaneous remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI at mass, today … Continue Reading »

On Good Friday, NPR ran a piece of mine wherein I discuss why I remain a Catholic. This week, they present the flip side, showcasing an essay by author Julianna Baggott, who writes about leaving the Catholic Church, but not the identity … Continue Reading »

On Good Friday, NPR ran a piece of mine wherein I discuss why I remain a Catholic . This week, they present the flip side, showcasing an essay by author Julianna Baggott, who writes about leaving the Catholic Church, but not the identity : I am deeply Catholic and always will be, but I’m no . . . . Continue Reading »

The earthquake and disaster in Haiti immediately brought to my mind the Christmas Tsunami of 2004. Some may remember that when that horrific event struck, President George W. Bush immediately dispatched naval (and other) assistance and committed $350 million dollars (pdf) to relief efforts, to start… . Continue Reading »

A few days ago Inside Catholic re-ran a piece of mine from 2007, wherein I related personal experiences with “old” and “new” Catholic liturgy. It was a gentle essay that concluded in the hope that Catholics could find a way to bring the best parts of past and present liturgies together and weave them into a marvelous whole cloth upon which we might all stand “as we wait in joyful hope, for the coming of the Lord.” … Continue Reading »

A century after its original publication, Edmund G. Gardner’s unique study, The Road to Siena: The Essential Biography of Saint Catherine has been reissued with some judicious editing by Jon M. Sweeney. This new volume offers more than saintly hagiography… Continue Reading »

A few months ago, during the Obama-at-Notre Dame controversy, I had a conversation with a journalist, during which I opined that the whole issue of life versus death was”and has been since the time of Moses”a contest between light and dark, and would continue to be so. The journalist said, “you just said ‘black and white,’” and teased me for being a racist. But I’d said “light and dark,” and he admitted, when he stopped laughing, that he had heard “light and dark,” but had immediately extrapolated it to “black and white” and then thought of Obama, hence the tease… . Continue Reading »