December 10, 2010
by Margaret Cabaniss
Good morning! Just a quick round-up today; feel free to add your own links in the comments: A Wisconsin shrine has been approved as the first Marian apparition worthy of belief in the United States. Carl Olson parses the reports about a recent study claiming that "religion makes you happy because of its social rather [...]
December 2, 2010
by Brian Saint-Paul
Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute says that Pope Benedict XVI's new book-length interview, Light of the World, reveals him as a full blown Christian radical. The word “radical” comes from the Latin radix, meaning “root.” It’s in this sense Benedict is radical. His pontificate is about going back to Christianity’s roots to make, as [...]
May 26, 2008
by Armstrong Williams
The central thesis of our civilization is found in the following passage from Plato's Gorgias: "For no one who is not totally bereft of reason and courage is afraid to die; doing what's unjust is what he's afraid of. For of all evils, the ultimate is that of arriving in Hades with one's soul [...]
April 11, 2008
by Russell Shaw
December 10, 1948: Keep your eye on that date. It's likely to have an important symbolic role in Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming visit to the United Nations and the United States. Religious and civic pageantry, teddy bears wearing T-shirts with papal-visit logos, and celebrity worship may be the visit's most obvious features. But [...]
March 11, 2008
by InsideCatholic Staff
According to a new Pew Forum study, more Americans have left the Catholic Church than any other religious body. We asked 34 prominent Catholics why. Last week the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released a study on the changing religious habits of Americans. Among many things, the researchers found that the Catholic Church [...]
February 18, 2008
by Fr. James V. Schall
A term paper on Aristotle ended with the following sentence, not in quotation marks: "After all, a good man can only be truly good in the company of other good men." The sentence struck me. Was it a citation from some place? I checked Google. The references it gave were no help. Many passages [...]
January 21, 2008
by Fr. James V. Schall
Schall was born January 20, 1928, on a farm in Pocahontas County, Iowa. You cannot get more American than that. My mother was Bohemian and my father German-Irish. To my Jesuit colleagues at breakfast on my birthday I hint that this memorable event happened in a log cabin. Most doubt this as too picturesque, while [...]