Readers of First Thoughts will know by now that Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Silence by Shūsaku Endō was released in select theaters on December 23. The novel warrants the attention it is getting. Set in the 1640s at the end of Japan's “Christian Century” (1549-1639), Silence is a haunting journey through one priest’s struggles to remain faithful in the most challenging of circumstances. Continue Reading »
Beautifully filmed and acted, Silence is as powerful as it is ambitious. Continue Reading »
In Ontario today, doctors who decline to euthanize their patients are required to provide an “effective referral”: They are obliged, on pain of losing their license to practice, to send a troubled patient to a doctor of lighter conscience who will kill that patient. Cardinal Collins is fighting this abomination. Continue Reading »
Shūsaku Endō’s Silence is now widely regarded as a modern classic. The initial reaction of Japanese Catholics, however, was largely hostile. Continue Reading »
Some Canadian bishops are failing the same test that caused Sebastian Rodrigues to stumble in Silence. Continue Reading »
If we tried translating Verlaine’s spiritual writing into the language of accompaniment and integration, we would be exchanging great religious art for soulless bureaucratic jargon. Continue Reading »
A seventh-grader recently asked me how to respond to his peer’s obstinate claim that he and the rest of his Catholic co-religionists are just as bad as ISIS. Continue Reading »
The urgency of supporting the Four Cardinals arises from the objectively verifiable fact that the Church is in a state of complete confusion over some very fundamental issues. Continue Reading »
A Canadian document shows cowardly bishops accommodating the culture of death and sanctioning a grotesque misuse of the sacraments. Continue Reading »
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