Monthly Archives: August 2013

Most interesting. Especially this: Anglo-Saxons believe laws ought to describe what people actually do. If we adopt a 55 mph speed limit, for instance, we expect people to comply; if they don’t, the appropriate response is either to launch a … Continue reading →

A Rorate-Caeli reader writes at that blog: This is a picture from Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church at 6610 W. Sunset Blvd., in the heart of Hollywood, where last night I attended a memorial Requiem Mass for the soul of Mr. Guy Coulombe, father … Continue reading →

Best response I’ve seen yet.  BTW, do go read Bottum’s essay. Look at Bottum at his best, then. In Commonweal he argues persuasively that today’s Americans—young Americans especially—do not find the Catholic case against same-sex marriage persuasive because they do not accept … Continue reading →

Douthat writes in the New York Times: Finally, I think it helps explains where Bottum’s wandering, complicated essay is coming from, at least in part. Its author has never been a zealous culture warrior or an eager political scrapper; as … Continue reading →

On Sunday I skipped my usual attendance at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary because a friend who is also a member there wanted to hear a Messianic Jewish speaker who was guest-preaching at Ottawa’s most well-known megachurch, the … Continue reading →

Former Anglican now Catholic apologist Taylor Marshall has an interesting couple of posts about why Catholics are attracted to megachurches and what to do to woo them back. Here are some excerpts: I was at the bank and somehow I … Continue reading →

Our society is obviously not properly ordered. It’s so far from being properly ordered, in fact, that I doubt Aquinas or Aristotle would even believe such a society could exist. Nearly half of us were raised in broken homes. More … Continue reading →

In the Boston Globe: Before Mass on a recent Sunday, the Rev. Jurgen Liias stood in a cramped sacristy of a Catholic church with an acolyte and cantor and began a call-and-response prayer of preparation. Incense smoldered. The men thumped … Continue reading →

Here’s what at First Things Matthew J. Franck has to say with links to Bottum’s article in Commonweal and the New York Times’ follow up: Joseph Bottum, once the editor of this magazine, has unburdened himself of a change of … Continue reading →

The Madonna House priest writes: So what is this thing, clericalism? It’s a bit hard to define, although like the judge in the obscenity case, I can say that “I know it when I see it.” Clericalism is not showing … Continue reading →