2016

Misuse of Orlando

On the day after the Orlando bloodbath, I read in Crux Edward Beck’s scripted recollection of the homily he delivered in church the previous morning. The two did not quite square. Between the spoken address and the published account, something crucial was omitted and something ugly added. As can happen with Fr. Beck’s homilies, the gospel becomes a vehicle of persuasion in favor of his personal preoccupations. Edward Beck is a visiting Passionist priest who offers the noon Mass at my parish every Sunday. Continue Reading
A Nation, If We Can Keep It

Just six weeks ago, a Louisiana bill [H.B. 1035] that would require public school children to recite a passage from the Declaration of Independence could not pass. It had to be shelved amid multiple objections from African-Americans, women’s groups, and bureaucrats fearful that the bill would spark lawsuits from aggrieved factions in the race, class, and gender bazaar. The tabling illustrates how imperiled history—the truth of things that serves no current identity group agenda—has become.   The offending passage, intended to be read by 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, is this:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
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After Orlando, A Shout & A Kiss

The gospel on Monday, the day after the Orlando bloodbath, was a hard one:
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[a] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.
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"Dear Bishop: Shut Up & Pray"

Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop of Brooklyn since 2003, gave the commencement address to this year’s graduating class of St. John’s University. Below is a letter written in response to that address by the father of one of the graduates. It reflects the tenor of Bp. DiMarzio’s speech quite clearly. Equally evident is the justice of one father’s anger at the contradiction between the purpose of the event and the bishop’s self-admiring seizure of it to promote a specific political agenda. The first obligation of any commencement speaker is to honor the occasion. Continue Reading
Fragments On A Theme

The seventieth anniversary issue (November, 2015) of Commentary was dedicated to a symposium on “The Jewish Future.” Seventy Jewish writers and scholars responded to John Podhoretz’ request to answer the question: What will be the condition of the Jewish community fifty years from now? The tenor of responses range from the exhilarating to the unsettling. All are  compelling. One of the few women respondents is of interest here. Bethany Mandel described herself as “a writer on politics and culture and a stay-at-home mother.” Continue Reading