Other Authors

August 9, 2017

Illinois has a budget! Now what?

I moved away from Illinois in 1995 when the state pension deficit was a trifling $20 billion. Moving back to Illinois in 2017, a $105 billion deficit now confronts me and those of you who never left. Our state’s unmet pension obligations are crippling.

March 12, 2017

Catholicism and the common good

Twenty-five years ago, Francis Fukuyama published his book “The End of History and the Last Man” (...

June 14, 2015

The Holy Longing

Everyone longs to know something that’s secret, to know something that others don’t know, but that you know, and the knowledge of which gives you some insight and advantage over others who are outside the inner circle of that secret. It has always been so. Historically this is called “gnosticism,” which forever makes an appearance in one form or another.

June 14, 2015

Catholic Answer

Q. After laicization, what powers does a priest still have? In an emergency, for example, can he validly hear confession? And is it possible for him to be restored? — Candace, via email

March 22, 2015

The Holy Longing

This is a thought inside the head of Marilynne Robinson’s fictional character, Lila, in Robinson’s recent novel. Lila has reason to think that way, that is, to think outside the box of conventional religious piety because her story is not one that fits piety of any kind. Lila had been an unwanted orphan, dying from malnutrition and neglect, when at a young age she was taken up by a woman named Dolly, herself a social outcast. Lila spends all the years of her youth with Dolly, traveling with her as the two of them live on the edges of society and hunger, working as agricultural laborers with others like themselves, more slaves than paid workers.

March 22, 2015

Catholic Answer

Q: Is it ever permitted for a woman to serve as a master of ceremonies for a liturgy? Are there any rules about this in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal? I ask as I have seen laymen serve in that role. I am not in favor of the ordination of women. — Bridget, via email

March 8, 2015

Twenty-Something

Belinda Monahan has analyzed more than 100,000 animal bones in Armenia dating back from the Early Bronze Age (1,200 BC) to the Medieval period.

February 22, 2015

Catholic Answer

Q: I read that a priest in Louisiana was being ordered to break the seal of confession. Are there ever grounds for a priest to reveal a confession? Is there some provision in which he may do it if a penitent gives permission? — Taylor, via email

February 8, 2015

The Holy Longing

Most all of us worry about aging, especially in how it affects our bodies. We worry about wrinkles, bags under our eyes, middle-age fat and losing hair where we want it only to find it on places where we don’t want it. So every now and then, when we look in a mirror or see a recent photograph of ourselves, we are shocked at our own faces and bodies, almost not recognizing ourselves as we see an old face and old body where we are used to seeing a young one.

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