Speaking at the University of Notre Dame in October 2016, just a few weeks before a national election that seemed sure to put a second Clinton in the White House, I noted that [Q]uite a few of us American Catholics have worked our way into a leadership class that the rest of the country both…
Among rare neurological disorders, the “pseudobulbar affect” is manifested by uncontrolled laughter or crying. It can be treated effectively in many cases with a combination of the drugs dextromethorphan and quinidine. But there is another malady for which the Food and Drug Administration has no cure, and that is the habit of affecting emotions insincerely…
Sæva indignatio. Few writers in the history of English letters could express “savage indignation” at human folly as did Jonathan Swift who wrote those words for his own epitaph. Our times give ample opportunity to empathize with him, and that is never more so than when clerics get together in large numbers. Bishops have many…
Jacques Pantaléon was an unlikely candidate for the papacy, being neither a cardinal nor Italian, since he was the son of a French cobbler. Nonetheless he became Pope Urban IV after having acquitted himself well as Patriarch of Jerusalem. His attentions also involved him in concerns from Constantinople to Germany and Denmark. Two months before…
On January 18, 2019, a video of Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann went viral. He was at the Lincoln Memorial standing face to face with a Native American man during the March to Life in Washington, D.C. On the basis of that picture, a frenzy of condemnations from reporters, commentators and politicians were…
While experience cautions theologians against the quicksand of politics, politicians not infrequently rush in to theological matters where angels fear to tread. So it was on May 29 when our junior senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, announced on National Public Radio that the Church is wrong about abortion, homosexuality, and the male priesthood. This…
An epitaph on the tomb of Bishop Miler Magrath of Cashel in Ireland (d. 1622) reads: “Here where I am placed I am not. I am not where I am not. Nor am I in both places, but I am in each.” His problem was that he had called himself a Catholic bishop as well…
To have known Father Stanley Jaki for more than twenty years was a privilege and a challenge. The privilege was to count as friend and mentor this Benedictine cited by many as one of the five priests whose science has most shaped our understanding of the world. The others are Copernicus in astronomy, Mendel in…
For author Patrick McCaskey, Worthwhile Struggle is the fourth book of his “Sports and Faith Series” and his best effort yet. As with past books, McCaskey draws heavily from his experience with the Chicago Bears as the grandson of George Halas*, his passion for his Catholic Faith, his commitment to family, and his formative years…
Prayer should not be seen simply as a good deed done by us to God, our own action. It is, above all, a gift, the fruit of the living presence, the life-giving presence of the Father and of Jesus Christ in us. And we know how true it is when the Apostle [Paul] says: “we…
A chronic temptation of the historian is to play the “Monday morning quarterback” who assumes that he would have made a correct decision in a past crisis. But the players at the time could only postulate consequences. The appeasers who signed the Munich Agreement in 1938 do not enjoy a happy legacy, but then the…
It has been a wonderful Easter season. In the process of reading the Bible and attending Holy Week and Easter services I also learned in reading from Bob Gass and the Word For Today about noticing that the “cross” has two posts: vertical and horizontal. The vertical represents your relationship with God, what He wants…
William Buckley, Jr. is considered to be the “undisputed godfather of modern American conservativism.” He was on the national stage for 50 years as the founder and publisher of the National Review, which is published semi-monthly; and also as the TV host who had the longest-running public affairs show in television history, Firing Line (33…
In recent weeks, long lines streamed into the Morgan Library to see a display of J.R.R. Tolkien’s memorabilia and his art, mostly drawings and watercolors. Other authors like William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor sketched as an avocation, but these pictures were very much an integral part of Tolkien’s symbolic world in The Lord of the Rings, The…
There are books worth reading, and then there are books worth sharing after you’ve read them. I heartily recommend the new book by Father Bill Miscamble, a Holy Cross Father, at the University of Notre Dame. It’s called American Priest: The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted Hesburgh , and it profiles the…
The English priest John Colet was influenced by his friends Erasmus and Saint Thomas More. As Dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, he founded Saint Paul’s School for boys in 1509 on humanist principles. Graduates have included John Milton, Samuel Pepys, John Churchill, G.K. Chesterton, three recipients of the Victoria Cross and Field Marshal…
CNA—Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia called for broad participation in a pro-life rally this week, scheduled in response to a Penslyvania state representative’s livestreamed harassment of a woman praying outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic. “These videos, which Representative Sims took himself, have rightly sparked broad outrage … His actions were unbecoming of an elected…
Catholic Business Journal is pleased to introduce John Abbate as our newest Catholic business columnist—ed. As the owner-operator of several McDonald’s franchises and a Catholic business leader, I believe I have a responsibility to bring the virtue of hope into my business and into the lives of my employees. I am fortunate to have the…
Every writer is familiar with the word “obelism,” which refers to an editor’s abbreviations in the margins indicating corrections to be made. An author in a passive-aggressive mood may counter by writing the Latin “stet,” which means to let the text remain as is. When the Temple authorities were scandalized that Pontius Pilate had ordered…
After going through his own “Road to Emmaus” experience, Catholic businessman John Abbate wanted to encourage business leaders at all levels to stay true to their faith-driven, ethical compass. To that end, and as a successful central California owner-operator of 37 McDonald’s outlets and one of central California’s largest employers, Abbate was inspired to author…
