On Sept. 2, 1939, the House of Commons debated the British government’s response to the German invasion of Poland the previous day. The ruling Conservative Party was badly divided between those demanding that Britain fulfill its obligations to Poland and those addicted to the habits of appeasement. “Party loyalty” was being invoked to drown out […]
Guest Columnists
Letting the Spirit Lead the Way
RECENTLY, HOLY CROSS Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, passed away at the age of 97. During my years at Notre Dame, Father Ted, as some of us called him, became a mentor and a friend whose guidance has been imprinted on every decision I made since our first meeting in 1997.
New Documentary Marks Centenary of Merton’s Birth
Morgan Atkinson’s new documentary on Thomas Merton, the famed Trappist monk from the Cistercian abbey in Gethsemani, Ky., was “40 years in the making,” he joked.
The Geometry of Leadership
I’VE BEEN THINKING a lot these days about the geometry of leadership. Those thoughts are prompted by invitations I have had to speak to college students about leadership and also by the recent death of a great educational leader, Holy Cross Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, and by the emergence in Iowa and New Hampshire of presidential hopefuls as the primary season begins to heat up.
John Paul II and ‘America’
IN THE YEARS PRECEDING the Great Jubilee of 2000, John Paul II held a series of continental synods to help the Church in different locales reflect on its distinctive situation at the end of the second millennium, and to plan for a future of evangelical vigor in the third. These Special Assemblies were easily named in the case of the Synods for Africa, Asia and Europe. But when it came to the Synod for the western hemisphere, John Paul threw a linguistic curveball that made an important point.
Remembering No. 84, Jim Mutscheller
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.
A Modern Martyr: Father van der Lugt
A little over a year ago, Jesuit Father Frans van der Lugt was assassinated in Syria. His story is inspirational for the sheer faithfulness and integrity of his witness. I keep his picture in my office to remind me of this witness.
Practicing Charity In Our Words
YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD the familiar: “We care about what you think.” You’ve seen or heard it nearly every day via telephone, online or in commercial surveys. Companies gather the feedback forms in a variety of ways and the possibilities of making ourselves heard appears to be endless – and perhaps, too tempting.
Austerity, Conservation Should Be Our Platform
ON A RECENT TRIP out West, I once again became aware of one of St. John XXIII’s reasons for initiating the Second Vatican Council: to encourage the Church to adjust to changing times.
‘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.