Obama and the "Real" Catholics
Passionate debates over doctrine, identity, and the boundaries of “communion” have been a staple of the American religious landscape for centuries: Trinitarians vs. Unitarians in 19th-century New England; Modernists vs.
A Christian Nation?
A few days after the 2008 election, I was walking toward the Largo Argentina on a cool, clear Roman evening, when I noticed a magazine kiosk and wandered over to
A Calumny against the Cardinal
It would be difficult to imagine a more mindless misrepresentation of the right relationship of church and state in these United States than that proffered by the Chicago Tribune on
The University's Egregious Error
When a university invites a prominent personality to deliver a commencement address and accept an honorary degree, a statement is being made to graduates, students, faculty, parents, alumni and donors:
A Moral Exemplar?
**The University of Notre Dame has announced that Pres. Barack Obama will be the principal speaker and will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree at the university’s commencement on Sunday, May 17. The invitation
The N.Y. Times Flunks Ecclesiology 101
The quaint notion that the New York Times is the nation’s paper-of-record took another hit on Feb. 23, when the Grey Lady ran a commentary on Milwaukee archbishop Timothy Dolan’s
The Sebelius Challenge
President Obama's first choice for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services was former South Dakota senator Tom Daschle–a pro-abortion Catholic Democrat. President Obama's second choice for secretary
A Campaign of Narratives
The conventional Beltway wisdom on the 2008 presidential election was summed up, unsurprisingly, by David Broder in a Washington Post column published on November 2, 2008, forty-eight hours before the
Were They at the Same Meeting?
From the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: It is with great joy that my husband, Paul, and I met with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, today. In
The Realism of the Incarnation, and Our Present Circumstances
The Gospel reading for the vigil Mass of Christmas Eve is the genealogy of Jesus according to Matthew: a terror to priests and deacons with poor Hebrew pronunciation and a
Giving Thanks for America
The vagaries of scheduling put me in Europe for the week before the November 4 election. In conversations in both Rome and Cracow, I was struck by the frequency with
The Two Americas
By the dawn’s early light on Nov. 5, two distinct Americas hove into view. The two Americas are not defined by conventional economic, ethnic or religious categories; it’s not rich
