The much-awaited Olympics is now upon us in Rio, a city in a country in a continent mired in unmanageable debt and corruption. Surrounded by poverty-stricken favelas, the city has poured billions into Olympic venues, security, advertisement, all to watch a few thousand overhyped young athletes strive to excel at their chosen sport. Don’t get […]
We are in the midst of an enigmatic papacy, and many Catholics know not how to respond to Pope Francis. Well, some think they do, and are rather vociferous in their comments, on either side of the spectrum. Just to be clear: When I write of the Pope, or the Church in general, my […]
I suppose Pope Francis is correct that we should not strictly identify Islam with terrorism, but a lot depends on how one defines ‘terrorism’. What are we to make of Islam’s decree of a death sentence on apostasy and blasphemy? Would that not count as ‘terrorism’, nothing else but coercion by violence? One does wonder. […]
Another Islamic massacre, this time of an octogenarian priest, Father Jacques Hamel, saying Mass in a church in Saint Etienne de Rouvray in the northwest of France. ISIS has claimed responsibility, with promises of more attacks ‘on churches’: These Islamists are nothing if not symbolic, with their own form of ‘liturgy’, working on behalf of […]
As I have mentioned previously, Cardinal Sarah, the head of the Congregation of Divine Worship (so the highest authority in these matters besides the Pope himself) has asked for priests to return to the ad orientem mode of saying Mass, worshiping ‘with the people’, facing the ‘East’ and the return of Christ, as was done […]
The headlines proclaimed it, in a his and her perspective, on why a young-ish, urbanite couple plan never and, they mean never, never, never in the Taylor Swiftian sense, to have children. The mother, excuse me, the ‘wife’, Tina Marsh tells her side, then the ‘man’, Calum, his. Yes, I use scare quotes, since he […]
The headline the other day read that the Anglican ‘Church of Canada’ had rejected same-sex ‘marriage’ in their recent synod by one measly vote. Now, just yesterday, lo and behold, what some might consider by a Deus ex machina recount, they realize that, in fact, some votes were not counted properly, and they have indeed […]
For those of you who, perhaps rightly so, misconstrued my article on the collapse of the rule of law, please do be aware that my intention was not to present an anti-cop, nor pro-‘Black Lives Matter’ piece, but rather to use the current situation in America to show that ‘law’, understood in the broad sense […]
I have been asked to write about what is euphemistically, and rather incorrectly, known as ‘swearing’. We have all perhaps heard our younger siblings yell, “Muuuum! Jimmy swore!”. Yet Jimmy did not really ‘swear’, unless he is beyond his years, or brought into a court of law. Swearing literally is taking a solemn oath, […]
Today is the feast of Saint Benedict (ca. 480-547), the father of Western monasticism and one of the main forces in preserving Western culture through the tumultuous years of post-antiquity. His retreat from the world, paradoxically, is what saved the world, as he and his monks, guided by Benedict’s wise and prudent regula or rule […]