Joseph Bottum

The Boston Globe has a review of Christopher Buckley’s memoir of his parents—and it notes: Oh boy, William F. Buckley Jr. must be rolling in his Sharon, Conn., grave . . . . His only son, Christopher, came out in a Daily Beast column this past fall with, “Sorry, Dad, I’m . . . . Continue Reading »

My essay on Notre Dame in the new issue of the Weekly Standard . The thesis—that this is a fight  about Catholic culture, not Catholic politics—is developed at greater length in the next issue of First Things . The office copies just arrived, and so that issue of First Things should . . . . Continue Reading »

You can trace, through the history of philosophy, a line of aphorism—that odd, somewhat disreputable method of doing philosophy as a kind of bastard poetry. Maybe even as a kind of magic: truth as something to be summoned by careful incantation and the weird precision of a witch’s spell. It . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square The Connecticut state legislature recently considered a bill to wrest property away from the Catholic”and only the Catholic”Church, giving ownership of Catholic parishes to boards of local parishioners. The bill never had much chance of enactment: Nearly every . . . . Continue Reading »

I missed the news last week that a firm in the Netherlands had purchased the rights to the Rodgers & Hammerstein songbook. Funny to think, isn’t it, that the Dutch now own these musicals? “Amsterdam, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the dikes.” Or that great musical North . . . . Continue Reading »

A While We’re At It in this month’s edition of The Public Square, the popular column at the end of First Things:Intelligent and entertaining are two adjectives that go together far too rarely, but they belong in company when speaking of our contributing writer Alan Jacobs. He has in this . . . . Continue Reading »

What happens, I think, is that the Pastor pulls back on the Cross with his thumb. That opens the lid, and then the Pastor can pour out a glass of cool lemonade for Mrs. Fitzpatrick, the head of the parish chapter of the Church Mission Society, who’s stopped by the rectory to complain about the . . . . Continue Reading »

Browsing around, I spotted a link to a Woman’s Day article with the headline 8 Good-for-You Indulgences. And a question recurred to me—one that perhaps you can answer, Sally.A friend of mine just made a little chunk of money betting that Citibank stock wouldn’t fall any lower—a . . . . Continue Reading »

There it is in black and white: Canon 1190 §1—“It is absolutely forbidden to sell sacred relics.” But the Code of Canon Law doesn’t seem to say that that you can’t buy them. Nor does it say that you can’t sell the reliquary in which a relic happens to . . . . Continue Reading »

It’s “a hybrid of Monopoly, Risk and Clue—with a bit of theological Chutes-and-Ladders thrown in for good measure,” says one player. According to The Tablet,During the course of their careers, players “Take a Stand” on weighty theological and moral issues, . . . . Continue Reading »