I have a love-hate relationship with confession. I hate it because it’s never very comfortable to admit the stupid, shameful, ridiculous things I do. I wait in the line with a head full of exaggeration, thinking of myself like a man on death row, waiting for the needle. In my desire to make a good…
Seventy-five years ago, at 7:15 A.M., on August 2, 1945, the composer and conductor from Livorno, considered by many to be the founder of that opera style marked by a strong realism that was verismo in music, died in Rome after a long illness: Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945). In 1940, the fiftieth anniversary of his most…
Catholic News Agency published an article stating that in the wake of monasteries closing left and right in Spain, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, the head of the Vatican’s congregation on consecrated life, insists that contemplative life will not go away: “we need contemplative life as we need food and water to live.” While I…
Mr. Dave Armstrong has been a successful Catholic author and blogger for some two decades. To his great credit, he is one of the few Catholics who provides a substantial critique of the traditionalist movement.[1] Without a doubt he has brought many to the Faith (particularly Protestant heretics) and strengthened the Faith of numerous Catholics.…
I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we’re more than half way through 2020. The bad news is that we have nearly half of 2020 left. It’s become cliche to joke about how bad the year has been. The problem is that it’s the kind of joke nobody…
Over at The Catholic Thing this morning, Randall Smith has an delightfully scathing piece entitled “The Artificial Jesuit” (a reference to one of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories). Smith tackles the decision made by Fr. Brian F. Linnane, S.J., president of Loyola University Maryland, to strike the late (but widely beloved) Southern Catholic writer’s name from one one…
In the traditional Latin Mass, the Gospel for today’s feast of St. Martha is always Luke 10:38–42: Now it came to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the…
A few days ago, OnePeterFive published an article describing the epic reverse suffered by Baron Albrecht von Boeselager, grand chancellor of the Order of Malta, in his attempt to force through a “reforming” Chapter General with his own secularizing agenda. He was defeated by the papal delegate, Cardinal Becciu, who insisted on the Order’s laws…
John Paul II declared to the world that there’s an ecological crisis, which has caused many to wonder about their moral obligation to protect and preserve the environment. This call from the pope encouraged certain theologians to argue for a per se moral obligation. By per se, I mean that man has some responsibility to…
I set off a year ago from London in a 20-foot racing sloop declaring — half jokingly — that I would reach Constantinople and liberate it from the Saracen. I am now sitting in a bar in Catalonia, and my chief concern is that the battle will be over before I can unleash my wrath…
On July 18, 410 years ago, 1610, occurred the death of Caravaggio, byname of Michelangelo Merisi (1571–1610), at the age of only 38. He died in Porto d’Ercole, Tuscany, while he was trying to return to Rome. Called the “cursed” painter in the nineteenth century, he was in love with reality as it is and…
