I hope you guys all know that it’s a bit daunting having this much expert firepower trained on my little book“kind of like having the National Symphony Orchestra sit in on a first grader’s piano recital. I can only hope that if in the course of the book, or this talk, I commit any literary sins of the theological variety, all the eminent religious leader here will just do the obvious Christian thing”and keep quiet about them. Remember, it’s Lent… . Continue Reading »
However the national debate on health-care reform ends this week, the struggle has shown the worst side of a certain kind of “Catholic” witness… . Continue Reading »
The April Issue of First Things is now available on newstands and online! This issue is filled with thoughtful essays, critical reviews, and lovely poetry”all of which, for a limited time, you can access for free below! For starters, here’s film critic Armond White’s excellent piece in this issue, “Do Film Critics Matter?””the perfect piece to read following Hollywood’s recent Oscars season. Continue Reading »
It’s always a good year at the movies, even if the great films can be counted on a few digits and never get mentioned at the Academy Awards. That’s why we need film critics”to help us understand the state of movies, our cultural life, and our general moral and political being… . Continue Reading »
A group of Muslim raiders with machetes attacked another Christian village in Nigeria on Wednesday morning. The attackers killed twelve villagers”seven women, four children, and one man”and cut their tongues out… . Continue Reading »
Among the hot-button issues in the November elections, support for Israel will figure prominently. But the issue is not Israel, and surely not the eventual construction of apartments in East Jerusalem. It is the Administration’s neglect or sabotage of vital security interests of the United States… . Continue Reading »
On Sunday, March 8, five hundred Christians were killed”slaughtered
with machetes by Fulani Muslims in the Nigerian state of Plateau. The
latest in religious clashes that the state has seen in recent months… . Continue Reading »
We are now a few weeks into the Chinese New Year (a year of the Tiger, elementally specified as metal, metaphysically specified as yang), and this seems a fairly auspicious time to pay tribute to one of my favorite of Chinese culture’s immortals … Continue Reading »
The Senate version of health-care reform currently being forced ahead by congressional leaders and the White House is a bad bill that will result in bad law. It does not deserve, nor does it have, the support of the Catholic bishops of our country. Nor does the American public want it. As I write this column on March 14, the Senate bill remains gravely flawed… . Continue Reading »
So the Vatican’s chief exorcist insists that the joint is demon-possessed. Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican’s chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican … . Continue Reading »
