Our bishops are public figures. All are creatures of the media in varying degrees. In the manner of secular counterparts, they hire public relations staffs to manage not only the image of the institution they represent but—just as critical—their own. None is more media savvy than Robert Barron, host of EWTN’s global ministry Word on Fire. (Media is the bishop’s family business, so to speak. His brother, John Barron, former publisher and senior V.P. of Sun-Times Media Group, became general manager last year of the Tribune Content Agency, a growing syndicate that sells content to publications around the world.) Continue Reading

Spare Parts, Mortality & Planned Parenthood

Maureen Mullarkey

November 24, 2015

Doctor, Doctor, will I die? Yes, my child, And so shall I. (Anonymous rhyme) Forgive me for withdrawing from the outrage over recent videos released by the Center for Medical Progress. Do not think I am not repulsed by them. Absolutely, I am. But what inhibits me from declaring my own revulsion is a disquieting belief that whether Planned Parenthood is defunded evades the true issue. Our righteous censure attends mainly to the symptoms of a disease we are loathe to cure. Continue Reading

Fr. Rutler & Paris

Maureen Mullarkey

November 22, 2015

For those of you who do not subscribe to Fr. George Rutler’s Sunday homilies, today’s reflection is excerpted below. But first let me follow the example of Pope Francis and scold a bit: You really should subscribe. They are free. You have no excuse. [I shake my finger here.] Fr. Rutler brings wit, erudition, and deep faith to the pulpit—the very place that blessed medley of qualities is most needed but too often absent. These postings began when Father was pastor of Our Saviour. Continue Reading

After Paris

Maureen Mullarkey

November 17, 2015

One thing for which we can be grateful to Pope Francis: His pontificate puts paid to the superstition that our popes are chosen by the Holy Spirit. That could only be believable if we are willing to say that the Spirit operates like a one-eyed Odin, setting his dogs loose at conclaves. On Rorate Caeli this morning is a pronunciamento by the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin. It had appeared in La Repubblica on November 16, after the atrocity in Paris. Continue Reading

Dalrymple on Francis

Maureen Mullarkey

November 9, 2015

We know Theodore Dalrymple as a contributing editor to City Journal and a fellow of the Manhattan Institute, which publishes the journal. So you might easily have missed his October 1st essay “A Bien Pensant Pope.” It did not appear as expected in City Journal but in the Online Library of Law & Liberty. It was Dalrymple’s clear-eyed response to Francis’ address to the United States Congress. Herewith:

The Pope’s recent address to a joint session of Congress was greeted ecstatically, though (or perhaps because) it was notable mainly for its secular rather than for its religious pieties.

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Bishop Barron on Paris

Spare Parts, Mortality & Planned Parenthood

Fr. Rutler & Paris

After Paris

Dalrymple on Francis

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