Guest Columnists

George Weigel

Themes for Surviving “Ordinary Time”

June 10, 2015

I’M FORTUNATE TO hear good preaching on a regular basis. But even the best Catholic preaching leans far more toward moral exhortation than biblical exposition. This strikes me as a missed opportunity. For if one of the tasks of preaching today is to help the people of the Church “see” the world and our lives more clearly by piercing through the regnant fog of cultural confusion, then there’s no substitute for expository preaching that digs into the biblical text, unpacks it and shows how it provides a unique optic on the here-and-now.

Karen Osborne

Enjoy the Magic of Turning 18

June 10, 2015

By Karen Osborne It’s the age when you’re legally independent, the age when you can vote or join the military. In the U.S., 18 is more than an age. It is a set of experiences. It is a magic wand that spins out a Cinderella-like transition from teenager to adult. It is the thing you […]

Father William J. Byron, S.J.

Listen Well to that Graduation Speech

June 3, 2015

“I NEVER SAW a hearse towing a U-Haul,” remarked a friend of mine the other day. He was talking about the problem of materialism in contemporary life and the need to find ways of convincing young people that there is a whole lot more to life than making money and piling up possessions.

YouTube Kids App Runs Afoul of Parents

June 3, 2015

WASHINGTON (CNS) – The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is borrowing an argument from Dr. Seuss in its complaint against Google with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The Myth of Washington Gridlock

June 3, 2015

Political gridlock is regularly deplored by pols, pundits and citizens alike. My contrarian view is that it can serve useful public purpose.

Karen Osborne

Partnership Makes Success Happen

May 28, 2015

A FEW YEARS AGO, Scott Bradlee was living in a basement apartment in New York City, hustling for jazz piano gigs at clubs and restaurants, and dreaming of something better. So he got a few friends together, started arranging jazz-, ragtime- and swing-style covers of modern pop songs, filming them, and uploading them to YouTube. His project, Postmodern Jukebox, exploded. The power of the share button catapulted them to Internet stardom – and then, the real thing.

Carol Powell

Energized, Encouraged by the Spirit

May 28, 2015

LAST WEEK’S FEAST of Pentecost is a wonderful time to meditate on when we are feeling depressed. Why do I say that? Think about “eh” state of the Apostles before the coming of the Spirit. They had a lofty work to accomplish but were totally incapable of carrying it out. Jesus had said: “Go into the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”

Men Such as These

May 27, 2015

LIKE MOST denizens of Washington, I pay too little attention to the sites other Americans make sacrifices to visit. Earlier this month though, prompted by reading James Scott’s “Target Tokyo,” a comprehensive history of the famous Doolittle Raid of April 18, 1942, I strolled through Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., in search of three graves.

Maureen Pratt

Making Excuses and Missing Out on Life

May 25, 2015

By Maureen Pratt RECENTLY, I TRIED to interview two people and they declined because, each one told me at separate times, on different days: “I’m too old.” Oh, dear. In an era when time seems like a rare and precious commodity, I can understand that there are occasions when we don’t have a minute in […]

Carole Norris Greene

In Baltimore, A Lesson in Blame

May 24, 2015

By Carole Norris Greene AT THE HEIGHT of the rioting in Baltimore in late April following the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man who died after being in police custody, the city’s mayor referred to those destroying properties as “thugs.” Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the Baltimore mayor, later apologized for the reference after being criticized […]