September 11, 2017
In the tumultuous eleventh century, seven monks including Saint Bruno formed the Carthusian order, dedicated to prayer for the serenity of souls, taking as their motto: “Stat crux dum volvitur orbis” — the Cross stands as the world spins. September’s Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross would seem a curiosity, were it not that Christ used that most cruel...
September 5, 2017
Special to the Catholic Business Journal— NAPA, CA – Syndicated columnist, NBC News Vatican analyst, and Catholic Theologian, George Weigel, spoke to an overflow crowd on “The Next Great Awakening?” at the 2017 Annual Napa Institute. Weigel began by noting that the vulgarity of today’s political culture has been on full display since the beginning of the 2016 election cycle....
August 28, 2017
‘Right-sizing’ has to be one of the more detested words in modern business language, mostly because the use of it often indicates a lack of courage. Rather than come right out and say ‘lay-off’ or ‘firing,’ too many leaders announce that they are going to right-size their organization, as though this will somehow change the reality of what they are...
August 22, 2017
Most Americans want basically the same things: general prosperity, a reasonably well-educated populace that is steadily becoming healthier, a responsive government that is neither bloated nor corrupt, a social environment that is both safe and free, and a sustainable natural environment. However, the political arena through which most of this must be achieved is now so hopelessly divided that our...
August 15, 2017
NAPA, CA – Four bishops—Most Reverend Borys Gudziak, Eparch of the Ukrainian Greek Eparchy of Paris, Most Reverend Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, Most Reverend Samuel Aquila of Denver, and Most Reverend Thomas Paprocki of Springfield—joined by George Weigel, a distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, on the closing day of this year’s Napa Institute to...
August 8, 2017
The illusion of one being perpetually young was shattered in my case recently when a publishing firm asked me to write some advice to a young priest from the perspective of an elder. For me, youth was a permanent state. I was the very youngest in my college class and, in my Anglican years, at twenty-six I was the youngest...
August 6, 2017
The Transfiguration of our Lord did not change him into another form of nature. After the event he was the same man taking the apostles down the mountain as he was when he took them up. As for us, said St. Thomas Aquinas: “Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.” Christ was already perfect, and the light that transfigured...
August 3, 2017
Special to the Catholic Business Journal—NAPA, CA – Author, Senior Research Fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute and former Senior Fellow at the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Mary Eberstadt, addressed an overflow crowd Friday at the Napa Institute with a provocative talk on what unites the forces that are attacking Christianity. Eberstadt began by noting that the tectonic plates...
August 1, 2017
We returned on July 29 from the funeral of an exemplary Catholic businessman – Emil Ogden of College Station, Texas. It was not just his hard-earned financial success in the always turbulent oil and gas industry or his lifelong quest for knowledge to advance his career and personal growth, but it was his steadfastness and commitment to his family and...
View Articles If you’ve met Tim, you know that his life was shaped by good values that were imparted to him by his parents and he...
July 30, 2017
Jan Struther (1901-1953) wrote popular hymns but is best known for the book that became the 1942 film Mrs. Miniver, starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. The Dunkirk evacuation figures in it and was emotive propaganda as the United States was just getting involved in the war. A new film about Dunkirk is educating many young people who never knew...
July 29, 2017
Special to the Catholic Business Journal— Registration for this year’s Napa Institute topped 550 people. The Meritage Hotel, where the annual conference is held, will soon be doubling its size and able to accommodate many more in 2018. Best-selling author Patrick Lencioni spoke on behalf of “The Amazing Parish.’ He has learned through his work that parishes are hungry. Lencioni...
July 29, 2017
NAPA, CA—Special to the Catholic Business Journal. Archbishop Charles Chaput opened this year’s Napa Institute with a provocative talk on how Catholics can live in these rapidly changing times. He began by culling from a recent Pew study that highlighted many disturbing trends in today’s culture: 33% of American men and 40% of women have an anxiety disorder 70% of...
July 17, 2017
In the nineteenth century, the poet Adam Mickiewicz dramatized the theme of his suffering Poland as the “Christ of Nations” and, in an image used by many others, Poland was crucified in the twentieth century between the two thieves of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. It was not the West’s proudest moment when President Roosevelt complained to Stalin at the...
July 2, 2017
The film Cabaret is better known these days than the novel The Berlin Stories on which its screenplay is based. Christopher Isherwood described the dissolute culture of a demoralized people, which gave rise to the National Socialists. Heroes in the German Church defied the Nazi outrages, and thousands became martyrs. Bishops who honored the apostolic witness included Felhauber, Galen, Preysing...
June 26, 2017
Pat and I have just returned from a week-long trip with two high school graduate grandsons – Trey and Patrick Von Dohlen. Both graduated with academic recognition. We went to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. It was very unusual to be in snow on June 15 and the Snake River was raging from the snow melt. We were able...
View Articles If you’ve met Tim, you know that his life was shaped by good values that were imparted to him by his parents and he...
June 12, 2017
The Feast of the Holy Trinity follows Pentecost because it is only by the inspiration of the Third Person of the Trinity, who leads into all truth, that the mystery of the Trinity can be known. Human intelligence needs God’s help to apprehend the inner reality of God. Certainly, human reason can employ natural analysis to some extent to describe...
May 22, 2017
It was a great Lenten season. Aided by the suggestions in the book 40 Days, 40 Ways by Marcellino D’Ambrosio, Pat and I selected the ways we were going to participate daily and throughout Lent. What was unusual was that we had planned a trip to South America that had us away on Easter. We were in Trevelin, Argentina on...
View Articles If you’ve met Tim, you know that his life was shaped by good values that were imparted to him by his parents and he...
May 14, 2017
A few blocks north of our church, at 1664 Broadway in the old Warners’ Theatre which was demolished in 1952, the first Vitaphone talking film, The Jazz Singer, opened on October 6, 1927. I have been astonished that some of our bright young parishioners never heard of Al Jolson, but history records, as did Vitaphone, his words, “You ain’t heard...
April 30, 2017
Rare is the obituary that can match that of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart (1880-1963) who died as the most decorated soldier in the British Army. He was born to a Belgian father and Irish mother, though reputed to be an illegitimate son of Leopold II, King of the Belgians. His mother died when he was six, and his English...
April 27, 2017
You know that feeling when you discover something that seems too good to be true, and you have a hard time convincing someone of it? People listen to you and begin to wonder, what’s the catch? That’s how I feel about organizational health. See, I am convinced that making a dysfunctional organization healthy is the best thing a leader can...