CNA—Criticism of Amy Coney Barrett is part of a “virus” of anti-Catholic “bigotry,” retired Archbishop Charles Chaput said on Monday. The archbishop warned that public attacks on the Supreme Court nominee’s faith constitute a wider threat to religious liberty. Chaput, long considered a leading intellectual among American Catholic bishops, retired as Archbishop of Philadelphia in…
“And now for something completely different,” as the entertainment industry is wont to say. Some aspects of liturgical worship are used for reasons that express the psychology of praise. For instance, there are vesture, candles, bells and, especially, holy water. The more that worship is confined to cerebral edification, the less attention is given to…
I found Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell to be an excellent book. As someone who has served as a CEO of early stage companies for many years and has also been asked frequently for advice by growth minded professionals and entrepreneurs, this book resonated. My copy is dog-eared and…
In our days of widespread inarticulateness, the word “awesome” is so overused that it loses its power. It is rooted in the Old English “egefull,” which means causing profound reverence. So, to call a good dinner or a new dress “awesome” is overkill. Only in the nineteenth century did its equivalent, “awful,” come to mean…
Pat and I have recently returned from a trip to Big Sky, Montana, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton National Parks where we took our two recent high school graduate grandchildren – Logan Elisabeth Denmon and Wilson Luke Von Dohlen. This is a tradition for us as each of our 16 grandchildren accomplish graduation from high school.…
Op.Ed, Washington Post—Sept 16, 2020—I never expected that the most basic religious freedom, the right to worship — protected so robustly in our Constitution’s First Amendment — would be unjustly repressed by an American government. But that is exactly what is happening in San Francisco. For months now, the city has limited worship services to…
In our city, accustomed to protest demonstrations of all sorts, a recent one was particularly dismaying and even frightening. The anarchistic chants were bad enough, but the frightfulness was in the glazed eyes of the expressionless marchers, like the “pod people” in the 1956 cult film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Carrying signs supplied for…
What is “woke capitalism”? This is a question that every Catholic should ask. Not just Catholic CEOs. Not just Catholic entrepreneurs. Not just Catholics in business school. Every Catholic, period. Why? Because every Catholic believes in – and benefits from – an economy where everyone is able to succeed. A flourishing economy is an expression…
The Prince of Lies cannot lie in the presence of Christ: “I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” (Luke 4:34). And Christ who is the Truth knows him, too: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Satan does not want anyone to know him, and yet in the present…
Joel Manby’s Love Works: Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders is an excellent book that is worth your time and money. Over the course of my career, there have been hundreds of books published on leadership effectiveness. While they all have their own twist, the best of them all share a common thread. They are all…
We hear a lot these days about systemic or institutionalized racism, especially in connection with the police and persisting economic disparity between races. Protesters say historical racism is so embedded in our western culture that we need to erase symbols of our tainted past like statues and the names of cities, schools and sports teams.…
It may not be long before “Ladies and Gentlemen” ceases to start a speech, as the result of blurring the distinction between man and gentleman, and woman and lady. We may not hear at banquets, “Gentlemen, charge your glasses,” or understand the Victorian-era ballad: “My mother was a lady like yours, you will allow.” Putting…
As a psychosis, “self-mutilation syndrome” is rooted in self-loathing and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Whole cultures can be afflicted with a similar compulsion to injure themselves. Nowadays it is called a “cancel culture.” To topple statues and burn churches is a metaphor for self-loathing rather than reason. In their modern aesthetic recklessness, nations begin to disdain what Matthew…
The coronavirus pandemic has forced us all to rethink our daily lives. From the personal to the professional to the spiritual, the habits and rituals that we have come to rely on have been upended. It’s been difficult, to say the least. But it’s also a good time for us to ask: How can we…
When viewing the events of recent weeks I think most Americans share the common heartbreak, anger and confusion of a mugging victim. We have been violently assaulted by some thugs and something precious has been wrenched from us. Our mugging was not a one-time crime on the streets of Chicago or New York during which…
It is hard for an old man like me to talk about suffering. Most people I know, including me, are in charge of our lives. No matter the losses and illnesses, we still have access to care, to security, and a decent life. Suffering is not a real part of my world. Just how far…
Tied to my garden by a number of convalescing’s that have ganged up on me, I have been thinking of some words that we chew over a lot in religious settings. Words we use to pinpoint events, or human experiences. And one of them is conversion. Sounds very special—something that does not go in, in…
July waves Old Glory and Le Tricolore. Jacques-Louis David based the French flag on the cockade of the Marquis de Lafayette, who had been urged to help the American colonists by the Duke of Gloucester, in a funk because his brother, King George III, disapproved of his marriage. At least there was no Reign of Terror…
There’s nothing like sitting outside on the 4th of July, the birthday of the United States, listening to great patriotic music and hearing a new Lee Greenwood song. Yes, I missed watching the traditional parade due to Covid-19 concerns, but I find myself thinking of all the blessings that my family and I enjoy; things…
Stalin, killer of at least 20 million people, said “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” In mid-nineteenth-century China, the civil war known as the Taiping Rebellion cost upwards of 30 million lives. The feast of Saint Augustine Zhao Rong and his 119 companions, on July 9, is a reminder…
