Sad and foreboding news indeed from the University of Saint Thomas in Houston: The administration has threatened within weeks to ‘reorganize’ or ‘close’ both the English and Philosophy departments, citing ‘financial’ considerations, an unheard of, and, at face value, manifestly unjust situation. The University of Saint Thomas is not only one of the few holdouts[…]
Nota in Brevis
Pope Benedict, Silence and Cardinal Sarah
I just came across a brief commentary by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, on Robert Cardinal Sarah’s new book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise. What the Pope Emeritus writes here will comprise an afterword in future editions, and I am very happy to see Benedict still writing from his seclusion, his mind sharp[…]
Today’s feast is that of the Apostles, Saints Philip and James. Philip, the one who asked Christ that if they could only ‘see the Father’ they ‘would be satisfied’. Of course, following upon my comments on Athanasius yesterday, Christ was already way ahead of the Arians, replying to Philip patiently: ‘He who has seen Me[…]
Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Receives Official Accreditation
Yesterday, May 1st, on the memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom received official recognition from the government of Ontario to grant degrees, specifically the ‘Bachelor of Catholic Studies’. Providentially, the letter arrived three years to the very day that the application was first submitted, on the day dedicated to the[…]
France’s Malaise
Thus endeth another Easter Octave, the week of Sundays that the Church offers us to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, with another 40 days of slightly more subdued celebrations (‘Easter weekdays’) to follow. That whole ‘rising from the dead’ really did change the whole world, and our view of it, which is why writing about[…]
Easter, Popularity and Populism
I hope that all our readers are enjoying their ‘week of Sundays’ during this Easter Octave, every day a solemnity, to be celebrated with great joy. We reflect liturgically in the weeks to follow the founding of the Church, the earliest days of Apostolic ministry, the miraculous spread of the faith within Israel and beyond,[…]
A very joyous and blessed Easter to all of your readers. For the next fifty days, we rejoice in the Lord’s resurrection from the dead, giving victory over that seemingly futile end of Man, and hope to all, in a sort of mirror-image to the mortifying nature of Lent. So, manducemus et bibamus, enim Christus[…]
A note to wish all our readers a very blessed and joyous Triduum, the holy ‘Three Days’, which really are, liturgically, one continuous Day, beginning this evening with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, followed by Good Friday and the salvific suffering and death of Our Lord, the peaceful quiet waiting of Holy Saturday, culminating[…]
As many expected, myself included, the Canadian Parliament voted Bill 84 into law the other day, without the hoped-and-fought for conscience protections. As I heard from one physician at the forefront of this battle, the usual placatory assurances from various legislators mean little or nothing, for there is no protection for health care personnel in[…]
Another truck attack, this time in Sweden, where a ‘lone wolf’, as they are so euphemistically termed, plowed into an ‘upscale’ department store in Stockholm, killing four and injuring a number of others. The suspect tried to flee in a ‘confusing’ manner, was captured, and is now expected before a judge. I wonder what his[…]