In my updated post about the Notre Dame fire, I mentioned Fr. Jean-Marc Fournier, the French priest (and chaplain to the Paris Fire Dept.) who went into the burning cathedral to rescue both the Crown of Thorns, which was housed …
Notre Dame en Feu: God Takes Back What Is His
During my senior year of college, I took a class on the French Revolution — my first real academic exposure to that seminal period since a brief survey in high school. Going into the class, I was confident in my …
The Ave Maria of Notre Dame
It was a video that brought so many of us to tears: a crowd kneeling and singing “Ave Maria” while Notre Dame burned. “Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu,” they beautifully sang as the camera panned to a shot of raw …
On the Death of a Choir Director
I was driving to attend a 9:00 A.M. traditional Latin Mass with my family recently. Ordinarily, the trip is exciting for us. My wife and I love the anticipation of attending a prayerful Mass. My boys like that they can …
The Burning of Notre Dame Cathedral: A Tragic Symbol for Our Times
Image via @princess_redd / Twitter Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has been burning for hours. It appears there will not be much left of France’s most iconic Catholic church by tomorrow morning. The blaze, which has already consumed the cathedral’s …
In Defense of Catholic Blogs
As we go through the present crisis in the Church, there are some who criticize the revealers of truth, claiming that it is better to live a good Catholic life as best as you can and ignore all the news. …
Pope Benedict Breaks His “Silence” to Say Not Very Much at All
Yesterday, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI broke his post-pontificate “silence” yet again in a 6,000-word essay about the crisis of clerical sex abuse in the Church, and his perspective on its origins. The letter was, he says, written in response to …
On Obsessing over the Environment and Neglecting Spiritual Duty
Near the end of the last academic year, the school I teach at was perplexed. Datasets, and even the general feel of the school, revealed that our students were struggling. Academic success was decreasing. Anxiety was rising. Administrators and teachers …
Beauty, Goodness, and Truth at the Sacred Liturgy Conference
For the last seven years, I’ve been involved in the organization of conferences focusing on the importance of sacred liturgy and music in the life of the Church. This journey began with my own longing for the sacred, which led …
Don’t Let Your Left Pope Know What Your Right Pope Is Doing
Last night, I was having a chat with a Catholic friend. We were discussing something I had tweeted a couple of days ago: I still can’t figure out how they haven’t figured out how problematic these optics are. https://t.co/4IEVLCfzDb — …
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