Dedicated to Lee and Margaret Matherne
There is one thing we all long for: to love and to be loved. There is one thing that we all dread: suffering. The title of this article should therefore puzzle its readers. It seems to imply some sort of contradiction. My purpose is to show that it is one of the many enlightening paradoxes of Christianity: on this earth, the two are deeply and inevitably linked.
Until it starts loving the human heart hibernates. This affective response (sanctioned...
On Father’s Day nine years ago, my son Dominic was born. Most of the world knows Dominic as the disabled boy Pope Francis embraced this past Easter Sunday while he was touring St. Peter’s Square.
What I didn’t know when Dominic was born in the early morning hours of Father’s Day, 2004, in what the medical profession calls a "crash" (emergency) C-section, but what I know now, is how the birth of this boy would change my entire outlook on and experience of fatherhood. His birth...
Is Pope Francis our first anticlerical pope? Technically speaking, he isn't – his two predecessors also were more or less critical of clericalism – but he is well on his way to being the most outspoken one.
Consider a widely circulated quote from a 2011 interview he gave while he was still Cardinal Bergoglio of Buenos Aires. In case you haven't seen it or have forgotten it, the key passage goes like this:
"As I have said before, there is a problem: the temptation to clericalism. We...
There's been a lot of talk about marriage equality over the past several months. But like those who invoke the phrase "social justice," activists who speak of "marriage equality" don't seem to have a clear understanding as to what marriage equality actually means.
One writer for Salon.com thinks marriage equality means granting polygamous couples the right to marry. Libertarians contend it means getting the state out of the marriage business all together. Others still, like well-known...
Some years ago, The New Yorker ran a cartoon that perfectly lampooned the loopy ideology of “inclusion” that has come to characterize so much of the Christian world.
It showed a neat and tidy church, filled with an attentive congregation. The pastor was at the podium, introducing a guest speaker. “In accordance with our policy of equal time,” he said, “I would like now to give our friend the opportunity to present an alternative point of view.” Sitting next to him, about to...
In one of his typically simple, direct, and forceful homilies, Pope Francis warned recently against idols and idolatry. "We have to empty ourselves of the many small or great idols that we have and in which we take refuge, on which we often seek to base our security," he told a congregation in Rome.
The chances of people today bowing to Baal or burning incense to Diana of the Ephesians are probably not great. It's a minor worry compared to everything else there is to worry about. But the...
“The devil rescues people from chastity by saying; 'You have become a puritan'” (C.S. Lewis, The Screw Tape Letters, p. 55).
Anyone acquainted with the history of philosophy would be baffled by Christopher West’s presentation of stoicism. He writes: “The stoic tries to avoid the pain of desiring more than this life has to offer by choosing not to want so much, by shutting desire down” (Fill These Hearts, p. 33).
His views sway considerably from the traditional understanding of...
Death has a way of forcing us to reflect on life. And so it is with the death of the infamous Henry Morgentaler—a man both celebrated and despised for his tireless fight for widespread access to abortion. When one looks at the trail of blood dripping from millions of children victimized by his killing crusade, it can be tempting to focus on his lifeless legacy.
Since those children cannot come back, and nor will he, I think our time is better spent reflecting on the legacy we ourselves...
The appearance of yet another film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby” provides the occasion for reflecting on what many consider the great American novel.
Those who are looking for a thorough review of the movie itself will have to look elsewhere, I’m afraid. I will say only this about the movie: I think that Baz Luhrmann’s version is better than the sleepy 1974 incarnation, and I would say that Leonardo DiCaprio makes a more convincing Gatsby than Robert...
As June approaches, get ready for the official celebration of “Gay Pride Month” by U.S. embassies abroad.
If sodomy and same-sex marriage are constitutional rights, what is their relationship to U.S. foreign policy? Despite the tremendous controversy regarding these issues within the United States, the Obama administration has gone ahead and placed them at the center of U. S. diplomacy. Why? In Libido Dominandi, E. Michael Jones wrote that the rationalization of sexual misbehavior...
