Did the speech made by Pope John Paul II at Drogheda during his visit to Ireland in 1979 change the course of Irish history? This is the contention of a new documentary John Paul II in Ireland: A Plea for Peace, written and directed by David Naglieri. The originality of the film’s premise lies in [...]
Holiness, with its call to share in the perfect love of the Father in the Son by the Spirit, is inclusive of the objective order of intelligence. “Holiness is intended to comprehend the order of being in its entirety.” David L. Schindler The Second Vatican Council insists that “all Christians in any state or [...]
Paul Kengor’s A Pope and a President is unusual in that it is also a theo-history, taking seriously the religious events of the 20th century. Written with academic rigor and in a brisk, readable style, it is a God’s-eye view of the hidden events of the 20th century and the actions of Ronald Reagan and [...]
God’s way of working in the world is full of seeming coincidences, plot twists, and unexpected jolts. Ronald Reagan’s election at an advanced age could not have been predicted, neither could have the sudden death of Pope John Paul I, which thrust the young pope from Poland onto the world stage. Most dramatic, however, was [...]
The “purpose of free time,” paradoxical as it sounds, is more than a merely intellectual concern. The misuse of leisure is a living reality, one of great importance to those who suffer from it… What is the purpose of “free time”? The question may seem foolish. If free time is “free,” isn’t it for whatever [...]
The papacy is ripe fruit for any filmmaker. As actors played the role of the pope, so each man who was elected pope stepped into a role that was bigger than himself… With the HBO series The Young Pope (reviewed by Tyler Blanski) the world has been taken once again into the irresistible intrigues of [...]
Monika Jablonska’s “Wind from Heaven” reminds us of the power of literature to renew the imagination, purify the language of the tribe, and inspire the noble pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness. Wind from Heaven: John Paul II—The Poet Who Became Pope by Monika Jablonska (202 pages, Angelico Press, 2017) As we planned the construction of [...]
What we have to avoid is the sort of thinking that leads to the belief that we’ve lost: the belief that we’ve got to batten down the hatches and try to salvage the remnant that’s left of Christian civilization. We haven’t lost… A few months ago, I gave a couple of talks at a C.S. [...]
I’ve not been fully sure what to “make” of Pope Francis. He is clearly a man of God with a deep love for the poor and an even deeper personal humility. But how is one to respond to his pronouncements on economic and environmental issues? Pope Francis and the Caring Society, ed. Robert M. Whaples (Independent [...]
John Paul II’s “Fides et Ratio” is an act of daring: not only an exhortation to professional philosophers to return to foundational rationality, but an invitation to all and sundry to realize their natural philosophical capability. I find this call absolutely remarkable, not only as a Magisterial pronouncement for the faithful, but especially as an [...]
In our year-long course on music at Wyoming Catholic College, students read and discuss a chapter from Joseph Ratzinger’s book A New Song for the Lord, “The Image of the World and of Human Beings in the Liturgy and Its Expression in Church Music,”[1] one of the best things ever written about church music. Ratzinger masterfully [...]
Childlikeness, as both the beginning and the end of our creaturely way of being, is the key to being effective and realistic in efforts to renew the world, and indeed is the grounds for never-failing hope in these efforts. Liberal culture’s anti-child practices are bound up with a logic of childlessness most basically defined in [...]
Pope John Paul II’s “theology of the body” is becoming better and better known among ordinary Catholics, many of whom have found in it a way of connecting the central mysteries of the Christian faith—Trinity, Incarnation, and Eucharist—with their marriages, their bearing and rearing of children, and their sexuality. To such Catholics, the theology of [...]
Merriam-Webster vacantly tells us that a worldview is “the way someone thinks about the world.” By this vapid standard there are seven billion worldviews. The squishy definition matches the convictions of our teachers and mind-molders who choose to stand militantly against taking a stand in this brave new age. Millions of school-age children are being [...]