by George Weigel AS I REMEMBER it, the Civil War centenary, which coincided with my middle school years, got far more public attention than the war’s sesquicentennial has received. There were a flurry of Gettysburg sesquicentennial columns and book reviews in July; the “Civil War Daily Gazette” (www.civilwardailygazette.com) provides a reminder, in detail and every 24 hours, […]
by George Weigel IN THE WAKE of late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s homicide convictions this past May, several state legislatures began crafting laws that would protect unborn life at earlier stages of gestation while shutting down horror houses like Gosnell’s Philadelphia “clinic.” Whether these laws will stand constitutional scrutiny remains to be seen; what is worth noting now […]
by George Weigel IN HIS JUNE 13 testimony before the National Security Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform, Dr. Thomas Farr of Georgetown’s Berkley Center described the failures of U.S. international religious freedom policy over the past decade and a half and suggested some of the structural reasons for that failure: lack of […]
by Mary Ann Todzia While I was in the Ministry Preparation Process (third year) of the Pastoral Institute’s Lay Ministry Program, it was decided that I should concentrate on the ministry of evangelization. My project was to begin a program called Matthew’s Mission in my parish, Transfiguration and St. Stanislaus Kostka in Maspeth. With the […]
by Father Arlen Harris, O.F.M. Cap. The smile. It is warm, and it is gentle. And it continues to inspire this still “green” priest even in the present day. I first met Msgr. Paul Jervis, pastor of St. Martin de Porres parish in Bedford-Stuyvesant, five years ago at Our Lady of Victory Church. I was […]
by George Weigel LET ME BEGIN by paying Father Andrew Greeley, who died this past May 29, a compliment he’d never have paid me, or indeed anyone of my “location” in the Church: Catholicism was duller after Greeley was felled by an accident in 2008, and the Church feels emptier since his death. In the […]
A good understanding of the principle of human dignity can be found in examples from new technology. Or from the straight talk of Pope Francis. Both can be equally effective. “We have begun this culture of disposal where human beings themselves are nowadays considered as consumer goods, which can be used and thrown away,” the […]
by George Weigel The “Edict of Milan,” whose milleseptuacentennial (so to speak) is being marked this year, wasn’t an edict and wasn’t issued at Milan. Still, its enormous impact on the history of the Church and the West is well worth pondering on this 1,700th anniversary. In his magisterial study, The First Thousand Years, Robert […]
by Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk Many of us have probably heard single women talking among themselves about men, where one of them ends up saying, “That guy, he’s just a pervert – he’s only interested in sex.” When women detect that a man’s focus has become the pursuit of pleasure, and that unbridled sex has become […]
by George Weigel When he was elected as Paul VI just 50 years ago, Giovanni Battista Montini seemed the perfectly prepared pope. He was the son of a middle-class family of Italian professionals with good Vatican ties. A competent linguist who had enjoyed a distinguished career in the Holy See’s diplomatic service, he was also […]
