Ed Wilkinson, a member of The Tablet staff for more than 45 years, is Editor Emeritus. He received a B.A. in Philosophy from Cathedral College and studied theology for a year at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, N.Y. He is an active parishioner at Our Lady of Angels parish in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
Below is a Currents News special about Wilkinson as well as an archive of his columns from The Tablet.
Take twin brothers from Boston. Make one a politician and the other a priest. Throw in an assassination and a terrorist attack, an interfaith marriage, the horror of radical Islam, and you have the makings of “A Prayer for the Devil.” It’s the first published novel written by Dale Allan, a member of St. Kilian’s […]
The Easter Vigil is the most dramatic event in the Church’s liturgical calendar. It uses sights, sounds and smells to announce the Good News that Jesus rose from the dead. Candles are lit. Incense rises from the thurible. Bells are rung. The cantor sings out, “Let us rejoice!” In recent years, the Vigil has taken […]
What is happening in Rome amounts to nothing more than a seismic shift in how we view the papacy. Pope Francis wades into the crowds to shake hands with people. Pope Francis calls his dentist and his newspaper stand in Argentina to tell them that he will not be keeping appointments. Pope Francis phones the […]
The diocesan Mass of thanksgiving for the election of Pope Francis had a decidedly Hispanic tone. Celebrated at St. James Cathedral-Basilica in Downtown Brooklyn, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio was joined by Auxiliary Bishop Octavio Cisneros and about 25 concelebrants. Not only did Bishop DiMarzio preach the first part of his homily in Spanish in honor of […]
This column was supposed to be about the qualities we are looking for in the new pope. And then we received the news that Brooklyn Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius A. Catanello had died. When the news came, it was not unexpected. Bishop Catanello had retired early in 2010 because he was stricken with a brain tumor. […]
I was in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI three times, twice while he was pope and once before he was chosen to lead the Catholic Church. In 1986, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger came to Manhattan to make a philosophical presentation at a Lutheran church. He was considered a controversial figure because he was the head […]
You can call him Pope Emeritus or Pontiff Emeritus. He’ll wear the white cassock but not the red shoes. He’ll live out of view of the public in what used to be a cloistered convent. These are some of the things that we know about Benedict XVI’s future as he “retires” from the papacy. There […]
The New York Times ran a column this past week asking the question about whether or not Benedict XVI will still be infallible when he retires. The answer, of course, is no! Only the reigning pontiff is infallible and only when he makes a definitive statement about faith or morals. In fact, the Holy Father […]
This being the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, there is a lot of interest in the Council and exactly what happened there. There has been lively debate about what was the “spirit” of the council. Did the reforms brought about by Vatican II lead to chaos? Was that chaos a […]
When Mayor Ed Koch died last week, the Diocese of Brooklyn lost a good friend. I had forgotten how good a friend he was until I began to do some research, with an able assist from the now retired diocesan spokesman Frank DeRosa. I had been Editor for only two years when an ugly controversy […]
