Guest Columnists

Carolyn Woo

Examining Our Aspirations

August 13, 2015

WHILE READING a United Nations Development Program report on violence in Latin America, I encountered the term “aspirational crimes,” used to explain the tragic acceleration in crimes on and by young people. The term refers to crimes motivated by money and the irresistible desire for consumption. Partly this is to support one’s family in situations where poverty is intolerable. But a large part is for the “cool” gadgets, shoes, clothes, electronics, etc., that swell a young man’s swagger and elevate his position within a gang, mark his achievement and anesthetize his misery for the moment.

The Perils of ‘Preferred Peers’

August 13, 2015

ON CATHOLIC CAMPUSES that aspire to Top Ten or Top Twenty status in publicity sweepstakes like the U.S. News and World Report college rankings, one sometimes hears the phrase “preferred peers.” Translated into plain English from faux-sociologese, that means the schools to which we’d like to be compared (and be ranked with).

George Weigel

Flaws in Taking the ‘Long View’ on Russia

August 6, 2015

Queried about the Holy See’s less-than-vigorous response to Russian aggression in Ukraine, senior Vatican officials are given to saying – often with a dismissive tone, as if the question came from a dimwit – “We take the long view.” On the diplomatic side, that “long view” seems to be a reprise of the Ostpolitik of Cardinal […]

Karen Osborne

Get in the Driver’s Seat of Life

July 30, 2015

ONCE UPON A time, I thought road trips were boring. Sitting in the back seat, bored to tears with the books I’d brought and the sounds of my brother’s video games, I’d zone out, daydream and wait for the ride to be over. Boredom on the road ended abruptly when I got my license. When you’re driving, you have to pay attention to everything. There’s no room for error. You’re behind the wheel of a killing machine, and so is everyone else.

George Weigel

The Amazing, and Now Venerable, Father Al

July 30, 2015

AT AN INCH OR so over five feet and weighing, I would guess, something on the underside of 100 pounds, Sister Winnie, a soft-spoken Filipina, is not your typical dinner speaker. Yet a few weeks ago she held a room full of Washingtonians spellbound with her story, which is also the story of a largely unknown American […]

Effie Calderola

Heading to the Beach – With the Pope’s Encyclical

July 24, 2015

The pope’s writing on climate change and the environment garnered a lot of press, even hostile criticism, before it was published. Let’s hope it continues to command attention. It’s long, but not difficult.

George Weigel

Flannery O’Connor and Catholic Realism

July 23, 2015

From this vale of tears, one can never be sure about the boundaries of acceptable behavior at the Throne of Grace. Is laughter at earthly foibles permitted? I like to think so. Which inclines me to believe that this past June, Miss Mary Flannery O’Connor of Milledgeville, Georgia, was having a good cackle.

Maureen Pratt

Goal Setting Puts Dreams into Context

July 16, 2015

LIKE MILLIONS OF others, I cheered as American Pharoah, with jockey Victor Espinoza aboard, raced to the finish line at Belmont Park and became the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. American Pharoah is an amazing horse who provided an amazing time in the horse racing world.

George Weigel

Progressive Catholic Authoritarianism

July 16, 2015

BACK IN THE late 1960s or thereabouts, Father Andrew Greeley, the model of an old-fashioned liberal Catholic, accused Father Daniel Berrigan (the beau ideal of post-conciliar Catholic radicalism) of harboring an authoritarian streak in his politics. Father Greeley meant that, were Father Berrigan and his radical friends to achieve power, their aggressive sense of moral superiority would lead them to put Father Greeley and his liberal friends in jail. It was classic hyperbole for Father Greeley, but like some of his polemics, there was a grain of truth in it.

Summer Reading for Children

July 9, 2015

By Regina Lourdan If you have children at home, here are some books to pray and learn with all summer long: “The Ten Commandments” by Sophie Piper. Paraclete Press (Brewster, Massachusetts, 2015). 48 pp., $14.95 This interactive and creative book cube will entertain and inform toddlers and older children. Little readers will learn the Ten […]