A Bishop of Consequence
When I first met Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., more than twenty years ago, I was struck by his boyish demeanor, his exquisite courtesy, and his rock-solid faith. Then the
Remembering Michael Novak
Michael Novak loved the Catholic Church and the United States passionately. And with his death at 83, both Church and nation have lost one of their most imaginative and accomplished
The Persecution of Professor Esolen
Professor Anthony Esolen is a bright jewel in the crown of Catholic higher education in the United States, a scholar whose brilliant translation of, and commentary on, Dante’s Divine Comedy
On Our Need for the Real Thomas More
Next month marks the fiftieth anniversary of the film, A Man for All Seasons. And if it’s impossible to imagine such a picture on such a theme winning Oscars today,
Gloucester Fisherman, American Veteran, Polish Benefactor
Two weeks before Veterans Day, 88-year-old World War II vet Curtis Dagley of Gloucester, Massachusetts was decorated by the Republic of Poland. The great, late-Gothic sculptor Wit Stwosz (known in
Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, Dead at 89, Was Bred to Heroism
On January 28, 1979, Franciszek Macharski took up one of the most difficult assignments given any Catholic bishop in the twentieth century: succeeding Karol Wojtyła, who had been elected pope
After the “G-Word” has been Spoken
In the early Church, witnesses to the faith who had been persecuted and tortured but not killed were known as “martyr-confessors.” It’s been one of the great privileges of my
John Paul II and His ‘Secret Letters’ to a Woman Who Was a Colleague and Friend
The BBC “documentary” that aired on February 15, The Secret Letters of John Paul II, tells us nothing really new about John Paul. But it does tell us a something
Robert Pickus: An American Original
I’m occasionally asked why I, a dues-paying member of the Guild of “Public Intellectuals,” never pursued doctoral studies. The short answer is that I met Robert Pickus, who was my personal
Remembering Two Great Bishops
We American Catholics are, in the main, notoriously uninterested in our own history. So it likely escaped the notice of many that December 3 marked the bicentenary of the death
Remembering “The Few”
Seventy-five years ago, on Sunday, September 15, 1940, Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine were driven from the prime minister’s country house, Chequers, to the nearby village of Uxbridge: a
The Amazing, and Now Venerable, Father Al
At an inch or so over five feet and weighing, I would guess, something on the underside of 100 pounds, Sister Winnie, a soft spoken Filipina, is not your typical
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