by George Weigel, TWO WEEKS BEFORE Veterans Day, 88-year-old World War II vet and fisherman Curtis Dagley of Gloucester, Mass., was decorated by the Republic of Poland. The great, late-Gothic sculptor Wit Stwosz (known in German as Veit Stoss) was smiling, from what I trust is his current station at the Throne of Grace. And therein lies a tale.
THIS YEAR, Thanksgiving week starts right after the formal conclusion of the Extraordinary Year of Mercy. How do we incorporate what we have gained from the prayers, talks, readings and reflections that most of us took part in during the year to shape the way we think about and celebrate this Thanksgiving?
LOOKLING FOR SOME uplift after this tawdry election cycle? Some inspiration for tackling what lies ahead? A good way to enrich Advent? Examples of sanctity to help you be the missionary disciple you were baptized to be? Then let me recommend Bishop Robert Barron’s new DVD series, “Catholicism: The Pivotal Players.”
AT THE RISK of causing cardiac distress or cerebral incidents among the bloggers of the Catholic left, let me begin by saying that I agree with the claim that the recent WikiLeaks dump of “Catholic e-mails” from the higher altitudes of the Clinton Machine is no big deal. But if so, why not?
Sadly, many people are fed up with our uncouth political atmosphere … Nothing is more inspiring than trustworthy knowledge, and nothing is more disturbing than when it is misused and wrong.
by George Weigel WHAT DOES THE Lord’s injunction to turn the other cheek require when it comes to ecumenical dialogue? The question regularly poses itself to those familiar with the website of the Department of External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC): https://mospat.ru/en.
by Bill Dodds CAR MANUALS SAY the dashboard’s oil light may stay on for a few seconds after you start the engine. But mine had been lit up for longer than that as I sat in the driveway.
FOR THOSE OF US who find it impossible to cast a vote for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump on Nov. 8, this poem by Artur Miedzyrzecki, written during Poland’s Solidarity revolution, has a certain resonance:
After Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium was torn down in the old hometown in 2002, I began describing the vast empty space left behind as “the abomination of desolation.” That old brick horseshoe was where I learned baseball from my grandfather Weigel in the late 1950s – and where, a half-century ago, I had a foretaste of the joy of the Kingdom.
This Year of Mercy, young people have been rediscovering the meaning of our mission to be signs and instruments of God’s loving mercy. From mercy-filled events in parishes, to teenagers’ initiatives, this jubilee has offered the world’s youth chances to experience and share mercy.
