Blog of the Archdiocese of Washington
The video below is a kind of retelling of the parable of the pearl of great price, and also a bit of the story of the Woman at the Well. The parable of the pearl of great price is a brief one: Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine …
Susan Jacoby, an author and atheist wrote a column in last Sunday’s New York Times entitled “The Blessings of Atheism.” In it she proposes that atheism has a lot to offer, especially in times of tragic loss and that it frees human beings from having to ask and answer difficult question. As you may imagine, …
Continue reading “Answering an Atheist and Asking for Fairness and Accuracy”
Exactly two weeks ago many young children lost their lives in a cruel and horrifying shooting in Connecticut. I do not need to remind any of you of the detail. They are seared in our memory. Today, we observe the feast of the Holy Innocents, a feast commemorating the young children, of even younger age …
I usually like to keep things light on Friday evening when I post. And the video at the bottom of the page is something of a spoof on drug commercials, treating sin like a drug. Wait till you hear the side-effects disclaimer at the end. 🙂 I also thought today of doing a little post …
Continue reading “Sin on Sale – 50% off. But Beware of the Side effects”
One of the struggles that many people have an understanding the good news the Church proclaims, is that many people have either not heard, or are not in touch with the bad news. Imagine a man reading the headlines of the newspaper announcing a miraculous cure for a terrible and deadly disease. But imagine again …
In the recent killing at the Batman movie the alleged perpetrator James Holmes said eerily, “I am the Joker.” Let me state right away, I do not pretend to understand what set this alleged mad man off, but his self-identifying with the Joker, the featured nemesis of Batman in the last “Dark Knight” movie, resonates …
One of the great losses to Western Culture is the increasing refusal to accept that there is a Natural Law to which we may commonly refer. This is especially problematic in pluralistic and secularist societies like the post-Christian West where reference to the sacred text of Scripture is not considered authoritative by many. Hence, it …
Continue reading “A Lament at the Secular World’s Rejection of Natural Law”
I just finished reading Ross Douthat’s (pronounced DOW-that) book, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. As I have told you before, I highly recommend this to your reading attention. The book is an excellent summary of what has happened to the Christian faith in the last sixty years, especially in this country. …
Continue reading “On Finding a Holistic Expression of the Church’s Moral Tradition”