The Lord has delivered me into the grip of those I cannot resist. (Lamentations 1) Readers have written to ask why Studio Matters had gone quiet. There was the September essay in The Federalist on art work about 9/11 by eighth graders in 2011. After that, only radio silence. There was—still is— much in need […]

Vatican Disclaimer, Product Liability, & Good Housekeeping

Maureen Mullarkey

August 17, 2021

Do you suppose the Vatican does a risk assessment analysis before publishing an encyclical? Can you think of a time the Holy See indemnified itself against potentially harmful, if unforeseeable, consequences of papal geopolitics? Do you remember ever having read a collection of theological essays that was followed by a legal disclaimer? Some formal language […]

The Vatican & The Medical-Industrial Complex, part 2.1

Maureen Mullarkey

August 2, 2021

At the outset, let me add a brief preface. Part 1 of this look at the Vatican series of conferences on cell research and the biotech industry began on this weblog last month. I had promised a Part 2. Much of that promise appeared in The Federalist, July 15th, under the title “Inside The Vatican’s […]

False Piety, Female Sentimentality & Male Passivity

Maureen Mullarkey

July 11, 2021

False piety wears different hats. The sentimental kind gets my back up whenever I meet it. It is a species of attitudinizing, closer to showboating than to holiness. To illustrate, let me tell you about recent exposure to a case of it. The setting was Sunday Mass in a local parish church a few weeks […]

Painting, An Impromptu Respite

Maureen Mullarkey

June 18, 2021

Painting is meant to be seen, not talked about. Painters are drawn to things, not concepts or doctrines. What counts is what is front of them, the very thing itself—whether an object or a vista—not an idea about the thing. For a painter, the only ideas that count are pictorial ones. Matters of fact are […]

The Vatican & The Medical-Industrial Complex, part 1

Maureen Mullarkey

June 13, 2021

The current drumbeat for universal vaccination with an experimental biological agent is unprecedented. It ought to be met with a certain reserve. Instead, it has been greeted with child-like trust and promoted by Pope Francis. In the time of COVID, the military-industrial complex of sixty years ago has been upstaged by the medical-industrial complex. And […]