Father Vakoc, Catholic hero
Columnist Mark Steyn aptly describes film-maker Michael Moore, of “Fahrenheit 9/11” fame (or infamy), as a “crockumentarian.” Here’s an Iraq story that wasn’t in Mr. Moore’s crockumentary and hasn’t broken
Catholicism and Islam: A Strategic Dialogue
This past June 1, the president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, took to the op-ed page of the Washington Post to make a “plea for enlightened moderation” to his Islamic brethren
A primer on the Holy Communion controversy
The debate over the reception of Holy Communion by Catholic politicians who persistently support permissive abortion laws continues. This debate is an opportunity for authentic Catholic reform, in our sacramental
The President and The Pope
They may have seemed, at first blush, an unlikely pair: the American B-movie actor turned conservative politician, and the mystical, philosophical, poetically inclined Polish priest turned Pope. Yet historical coincidences
The National Review Board and authentic Catholic reform
When attorney Robert Bennett asked me to testify before the “causes and context” committee of the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board (NRB) , I told him that, once the tape
Italian lite
Roberto Pazzi has written two novels about the Vatican. His recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, “Why the Next Pope Needs to Be Italian,” suggests that Mr. Pazzi
What being “pastoral” means
At a recent meeting to debate Catholic reform in the United States, I said (as I’ve often said before) that I’m less interested in changing the process by which bishops
More than a hobby
Ambrose, Augustine, and Bonaventure; Charles Borromeo and Francis de Sales; Felix Dupanloup and Wilhelm von Ketteler – the tradition of scholar-bishops runs deep in Old World Catholicism and continues to
A long, complex, and open conclave
Rome in mid-October was awash with rumor-mongering and media speculation, what with the Pope’s silver jubilee, an extraordinary meeting of the College of Cardinals to review the pontificate’s accomplishments, and
The great Christian witness of our time
My favorite memory of John Paul II? I must have been asked that question dozens of times in recent weeks, as the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Pope’s election approaches. The
Interim Measures
Thanks to the changing demographics of the American priesthood and the failures of vocation recruitment in some dioceses, “Pastoral Life Directors” – lay women, lay men, or religious sisters who
Church history for dummies
SANDOMIERZ, POLAND. Sandomierz lies in what Poles call “Poland B,” the poor section of the country that didn’t make very much progress between the world wars – not least because
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