“Twelve years. Twelve years in Catholic school, and my son thinks it is enough to be a ‘good person,’ and he doesn’t practice anymore.” That was the pained lament of one of my closest friends in the parish. In economics, …
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The Priest Who Formed Gioachino Rossini
Identified in a private American collection, the harpsichord on which Gioachino Rossini learned to play came to light “That barbaric instrument” on which the composer in his adolescence was practicing “every day,” as we read in a letter of 18 …
Bastille Day: Blood, Death, and Exterminating the Beautiful
This week’s Bastille Day in Paris featured a man flying around on a brand new flyboard prototype, designed by inventor Franky Zapata. This “future soldier” buzzed through the air above the crowds and underneath a sky clouded in the colors …
Scripture & Tradition: Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Epistle: 1 Peter 3:8–15 Gospel: Matthew 5:20–24 O God, Who hast prepared for them that love Thee good things unseen: pour into our hearts such love towards Thee, that, loving Thee in all and above all, we may obtain Thy …
The Stroke of a Pen Can Destroy Everything
So much has been written about the renaissance underway in many dioceses and parishes across the country. With the increasing number of Tridentine Latin Masses that are offered, the newly ordained priests who bring orthodoxy and the Roman Canon to …
The Girl in the Blue Dress, Waiting
The church was crowded with worshipers that Holy Thursday evening. James was late and had to look hard for a seat. There’s always a seat in the front, he said to himself and pushed forward. This was a Catholic church, …
Book Review: How You Can Meet the Real Francis of Assisi
Franciscan Catechism: Progressives’ Fake News on the Saint from Assisi Guido Vignelli Chorabooks 164 pages $15.61 paperback, $7.80 e-book If the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name “Francis” is perhaps not quite the same as …
A Brief Tale of ‘Eucharistic Inhospitality’
We hear a lot nowadays about “Eucharistic inhospitality,” a phrase generally abused, but we would do well to reflect on a previous and far more damaging exclusion from the table that has cast a long and still lengthening shadow over …
The Spirit of Paganism Looms over the Amazon Synod
Something ancient — paganism — is “struggling to be born” again. It’s slouching toward birth, like Yeats’s “rough beast,” laboring to arrive for its hour. It’s emerging amid the rise of what exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger ominously describes as the …
The Order Of Malta On The Defensive – A Rebuttal That Rebuts Nothing
My 27 June article, “Stalinist Purges and More in the Knights of Malta,” has elicited a response in the form of a Declaration of the Grand Magistry of the Order (PDF). I am publishing this brief reply solely to avoid …