April 23, 2017, Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday "Christian liturgy is a liturgy of promise fulfilled, of a quest, the religious quest of human history, reaching its goal. But it remains a liturgy of hope. It, too, bears within it the mark of impermanence. The new Temple, not made by human hands, does exist, but it is [...]
September 16, 2016, Friday -- Adieu, Padre Amorth "I, afraid of that beast? It is he who should be afraid of me: I work in the name of the Lord of the world. He is just the monkey of God." —Father Gabriele Amorth, the famous Italian exorcist who was the exorcist for the diocese of Rome [...]
A Frosty Reception, Then Standing Ovation On the eve of the Pope's visit to England and Scotland, it is worth recalling that Joseph Ratzinger visited Cambridge 22 years ago to deliver a major address. As he began, the crowd was cold. His reputation had preceded him. As he spoke, the crowd listened. When he fell silent, [...]
The Man Who Expected to Be a Librarian... There have been a number of providential turning points in the life of Pope Benedict XVI. His birth, of course, on Easter Saturday, 1927. Then there was the summer of 1945, when he was an American prisoner-of-war at age 18. And the moment in the mid-1950s when his [...]
