The Times Online reports on Ingrid Betancourt’s recent meeting with the pope. Apparently Ms. Betancourt had been a rather lukewarm Catholic, but experienced a tremendous deepening of her faith during the last six years she spent in captivity in the Columbian jungle, praying the Rosary and gaining intimate knowledge of the Bible, which she now views as “an instruction manual for happiness.” Pope Benedict himself played a role in this rediscovery of her faith, for his prayers and public support for her provided vital consolation.
All in all, a heartwarming story.
Notes on Anosmia
One morning several years ago, as my wife, Wendy, and I were having breakfast together, I had…
Empire of Unreality
Shiva Naipaul (1945–1985) was the author of three novels and two books of mordant dispatches from places…
The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist
It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…