Jim Mutscheller, who died on April 10, wanted to be known as a man “who had led a good life,” for he was “quiet, humble, and so conservative that he’d eat crabs with a suit and tie on.” And therein lies a tale – and a yardstick by which to measure pro sports then and now.
Author: George Weigel
‘Wolf Hall’ and Anti-Catholicism
“WOLF HALL,” THE BBC adaptation of Hillary Mantel’s novel about early Tudor England, began airing on PBS’ “Masterpiece Theater” Easter Sunday night. It’s brilliant television. It’s also a serious distortion of history. And it proves, yet again, that anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable bigotry in elite circles in the Anglosphere.
Newman and Vatican II
What might we learn from John Henry Newman about the proper way to “read” Vatican II, as we anticipate the 50th anniversary of its conclusion on Dec. 8?
Easter and Evangelism
GALATIANS 1:15-18 is not your basic witness-to-the-Resurrection text. Yet St. Paul’s mini-spiritual autobiography helps us understand just how radically the experience of the Risen Lord changed the first disciples’ religious worldview, and why an evangelical imperative was built into that experience.
The ‘Tyranny of the Possible’
Ten years after his death, Pope St. John Paul II looms even larger than he did a decade ago. What seems most memorable was that he refused to accommodate to the “tyranny of the possible.”
The Indomitable and Effective Cardinal Pell
Shortly after Cardinal George Pell was named Archbishop of Melbourne, he instituted several reforms at the archdiocesan seminary, including daily Mass and the daily celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, both of which had fallen by the wayside in the preceding years.
A Mission of Loving With Integrity
The World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia this September should be more than a vast Catholic “gathering of the clans” around Pope Francis – and so should the months between now and then.
Keeping Catholic Schools Catholic
Will the Church be allowed to staff its schools with teachers who teach and live what the Catholic Church believes, or will the state try to coerce Catholic schools to employ teaching staff according to other criteria?
No Fighting God
Some months after my son-in-law, Rob Susil, died, a longtime friend asked me in a gentle but point-blank way, “Are you still fighting God?”
World Christianity by the Numbers
THE ANNUAL “STATUS of Global Christianity” survey published by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research is a cornucopia of numbers: some are encouraging; others are discouraging; many of them are important for grasping the nature of this particular moment in Christian history. This year’s survey works from a baseline of 1900 A.D., and makes projections […]