There is a debate going on in Britain about Catholic schools. It is taking place at several levels. At the level of government, there is much lip service paid to the value of “faith schools” because of their undeniable popularity, but there is also considerable tension about them. The expression “faith schools” is irritating — … Read more
Human life appears most precious when it is under the gun. At such times, we affirm the greatness of one soul by acting decisively to protect it. Or do we? Modern life produces a multitude of justifications for moral disengagement from our own dark choices and those of friends and strangers. In Bella, a … Read more
Ben Affleck’s career may be floundering onscreen, but the Boston native has proven surprisingly adept behind the camera. His directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, is an engrossing detective thriller that displays a nuance he lacks as an actor. R, 114 minutes Ben Affleck’s career may be floundering onscreen, but the Boston native has … Read more
Amid the footage of protestors, zealots, and activists featured in Tony Kaye’s documentary Lake of Fire, it is linguist and political provocateur Noam Chomsky who best outlines Kaye’s approach to the subject matter of his abortion film: “Choice is legitimate,” he says. “Preserving life is legitimate. And sometimes they come into conflict.” Unrated, 152 minutes … Read more
I am seated in the chancel of a glorious medieval church, just behind the great rood screen, one of only a handful in England that survived the Reformation. Originally, it would have been topped by a great cross, with figures of Our Lady and St. John alongside. Today, its intricate carving and delicate arches welcome … Read more
Catholics in Britain have recently begun commenting on what they see as a growing trend: Over the past couple of years it has become worryingly routine to hear crass and vulgar attacks on the Church, attacks that would be regarded as wholly unacceptable if they were made against the Jewish or Islamic faiths. Is this … Read more
Catholics in Britain have recently begun commenting on what they see as a growing trend: Over the past couple of years it has become worryingly routine to hear crass and vulgar attacks on the Church, attacks that would be regarded as wholly unacceptable if they were made against the Jewish or Islamic faiths. … Read more
There’s a problem at the moment in Britain with our sense of national identity. The problem is a compound of many things, of course: an all-pervasive culture of pop music and TV soaps, muddle about the way history is (or isn’t) taught in schools, a substantial and growing Islamic presence, confusion about our role … Read more
There’s a problem at the moment in Britain with our sense of national identity. The problem is a compound of many things of course: an all-pervasive curse of pop music and TV soaps, muddle about the way history is (or isn’t) taught in schools, a substantial and growing Islamic presence, confusion about our role in … Read more
In the past six months, Hollywood has released two major pictures that have each dealt with one of America’s two most famous unsolved criminal mysteries, both of which took place in California. Last year’s The Black Dahlia, directed by Brian De Palma, covered the gruesome and much-publicized murder of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, whose naked … Read more
Paignton is a pleasant seaside town in Devon, in the western part of England. Its wide, sandy beaches are packed in summer, and most of its 1930s houses offer bed-and-breakfast or are rented out as holiday apartments. There are boat trips across the bay to Brixham, where William of Orange landed in 1689 a statue … Read more
Paignton is a pleasant seaside town in Devon, in the western part of England. Its wide, sandy beaches are packed in summer, and most of its 1930s houses offer bed-and-breakfast or are rented out as holiday apartments. There are boat trips across the bay to Brixham, where William of Orange landed in 1689—a statue commemorates … Read more
Scenario 1: You’re discussing Divine Providence with your friends over a bottle of wine and mention that, in a strict sense, the Holocaust was “God’s will.” Your Jewish friend stuffs the cork up your nose. Scenario 2: An unchurched fellow wanders into the local revival meeting where he hears the preacher say, “You could have … Read more
Winter sees London at its most traditional: early-morning mist over the Thames, rain and sleet lashing against windowpanes, and red double-decker buses trundling through the damp streets as darkness falls at teatime. Uglier aspects of the place fade a bit—drunken rowdies tend to remain indoors rather than gather in scowling groups on street corners. The … Read more
Faced with the lurid, tragic landscape of the Catholic Church’s child sex-abuse scandal, some of the laity have posed the question: Where were the nuns when this was going on? Playwright John Patrick Shanley offers a rich, multi-layered response to this and many other related matters — theological, psychological, and moral — in Doubt, a … Read more
Much has been made of pro-abortion politicians flaunting their Catholic identity and receiving the Eucharist. The U.S. bishops, in their June statement “Catholics in Political Life” and at their November meeting in Washington, D.C., backed away from confronting wayward Catholics like Senator John Kerry and Senator Ted Kennedy who clearly ought to remain seated at … Read more
Aizawl, Mizoram State, on the India-Burma border: It was dusk as we made our way down the mountainside to the headquarters of the Chin National Front (CNF). We were a motley crew—a deputy speaker of the British House of Lords, a retired surgeon, a British doctor living in Australia, a journalist-turned-human-rights advocate, a bearded, beer-drinking … Read more
On September 29, 2003, a frustrated Rev. David Mullen sent a letter to newly installed Archbishop Sean O’Malley of Boston, pleading for help. “Talking About Touching” (TAT), a controversial safety education program designed for children in kindergarten to fourth grade, had just been accepted in the Archdiocese of Boston. He wrote: I am most … Read more
This past winter, the illustrious and venerable New York publishing house Alfred A. Knopf published the third and final volume of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Its title is The Amber Spyglass, and it runs 518 handsomely laid-out pages. The English-born, Oxford-educated Pullman had earmarked his first two volumes for the “young adult” market, … Read more
“There’s a sucker born every minute.” Sadly, P.T. Barnum’s famous saying applies not only to the circus but also to academia. It seems that the scholars of the Jesus Seminar bank on gullibility in their efforts to spread a reconstructed Gospel that presents a Jesus to their own liking. The Jesus Seminar, chaired by Robert … Read more