THE SCRIPTURE readings for Lent in the Church’s daily liturgy invite two related reflections. The weeks immediately preceding Easter call us to walk to Jerusalem in imitation of Christ, so that at Easter, we too might be blessed with baptismal water and sent into the world on mission. The preceding weeks, those immediately following Ash Wednesday, propose a serious examination of conscience: What is there in me that’s broken? What’s impeding my being the missionary disciple I was baptized to be?
Author: George Weigel
Pork Roll, Lent and Catholic Identity
A FEW WEEKS before Ash Wednesday, an Associated Press squib with Lenten implications appeared in the Washington Post sports section:
Men Without Conviction, Churches Without People
EUROPE’S WHOLESALE abandonment of its Christian faith is often explained as the inevitable by-product of modern social, economic and political life. But there is far more to the story of Euro-secularization than that, as three ecclesiastics, a Presbyterian minister and two Italian priests demonstrated this past Christmas.
Catholic Church Doesn’t Do ‘Paradigm Shifts’
It was unfortunate that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, recently described “Amoris Laetitia,” Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family, as a “paradigm shift.” Perhaps the cardinal meant “paradigm shift” in some sense other than … paradigm-shift-as-rupture.
An Homage to Don Briel
IN THE HISTORY of U.S. Catholic higher education since World War II, three seminal moments stand out: Msgr. John Tracy Ellis’ 1955 article, “American Catholics and the Intellectual Life;” the 1967 Land O’Lakes statement, “The Idea of a Catholic University;” and the day Don J. Briel began the Catholic Studies Program, and the Catholic Studies movement, at the University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities.
‘Equilibrium’ and Ignominy
THIS PAST DEC. 18, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the department of external relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, received an honorary degree from the Faculty of Theology of Apulia in Bari, on Italy’s Adriatic coast. During his remarks on that occasion, Metropolitan Hilarion thanked the Holy See “per la sua posizione di equilibrio riguardo al conflitto in corso in Ucraina [for its balanced position regarding the conflict underway in Ukraine].” Did anyone in the Vatican blush in shame at that compliment? A lot of high-ranking Roman churchmen should have.
Recompense for a Serious Mistake
I WON’T VENTURE into classical Roman literature, which is not my forte, but I will say with assurance that the greatest modern Latin pun was the result of a schoolgirl prank. In 1844, General Charles James Napier, commanding a British army during the heydays of imperialism in South Asia, was ordered to subdue the province of Sindh (now in Pakistan).
Viva Cristo Rey (Schools)!
IN THE 1920S, when the United States had a quasi-Stalinist regime on its southern border, “Viva Cristo Rey!” was the defiant battle cry of Cristeros who fought the radically secular Mexican government’s persecution of the Church. “Viva Cristo Rey!” were likely the last words spoken by Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J., whose martyrdom in 1927 may have been the first in history in which the martyr was photographed at the moment of death. Today, in the U.S., “Cristo Rey” has a different, although not wholly unrelated, meaning – for it’s the name of an important experiment in Catholic education for poor children.
The Crèche and Life in The Gap
FOR THE PAST decade or so, I’ve been assembling a mid-sized Judean village of Fontanini crèche figures, including artisans, herders (with sheep), farmers (with chickens and a historical turkey), vintners, blacksmiths, musicians, weavers and a fisherman or two (one awake, another asleep).
Books for Christmas
IT’S BEEN A good year for publishing – at least in the sense of a lot of good books getting published – so here are some for the readers on your Christmas gift list, in addition, of course, to “Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II” (Basic Books), by your scribe: