That little pill has changed everything. The effect of birth control and a contraceptive culture has altered our world in ways we could never have expected. Think for a moment about the effect contraception has had on the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. First of all, if a family has ten kids [...]
Maybe I've spent too much time on Facebook, but why is everybody so darned offended all the time? Traditionalist Catholics are constantly getting on their high horse. Then its the feminist and homosexualists who are stomping off in high dudgeon. Next it is the Liberals or the Eastern Orthodox or the Lutherans or the college students [...]
One of the greatest blessings of my life is that my Mom had the guts to not have TV. Yep. I grew up in the 1960s and 70s with no TV. My folks were not especially strict or puritanical. They didn't tell us TV was wicked or "Hell's sewer straight into your home." They just simply [...]
From time to time I will get an email asking whether I considered Eastern Orthodoxy when I left Anglicanism. The answer is that I did not. Here's why: I certainly learned a bit about Eastern Orthodoxy while I was at Oxford. Bishop Kallistos Ware lived around the corner in North Oxford. and I attended the little [...]
Let's face it, we're the world's only superpower. And yet we're so insecure.
You may have heard of my latest book project called The Mystery of the Magi- the Quest to Identify the Three Wise Men. I'm really excited by this book. It has been so interesting to investigate the historicity of the Magi story. One of the reasons the book has been so exciting to produce is because it [...]
One remembers the day when a good, strong pope and a good, strong president--both having survived assassination attempts-- got together with a sense of mission.
Why is there such madness, hatred and meaningless violence?
I remember as an Anglican priest Archbishop George Carey launched a big initiative called "The Decade of Evangelism." It was more like "The Decay of Evangelism." It was a big flop. From time to time in every church the leaders feel they must give evangelism and renewal the old college try. They form committees and the [...]
The Catholic Church will sometimes seem to you to be full of human failure, incompetence, futility, fighting and frailty. But there is great treasure hidden in that muddy field.