In his homily at his inaugural Mass as Pope, Benedict XVI asked Catholics to “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”  The media firestorm over Benedict’s decision to lift the excommunication of the four bishops consecrated without papal approval in 1988 by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre provides a perfect illustration of how modern wolves … [Read More]

Last week John Derbyshire posted on NRO a justification for his atheism, a comment that brought forth a thunderous response on this website from a devout Catholic John Zmirak. Having read both these commentaries, it seems that neither is entirely convincing. Zmirak goes after those who treat sociobiology as the key to human behavior; in the process he makes light of … [Read More]

I’d like to say “Thank God” for John Derbyshire, except that the crotchety old Brit has convinced me not to believe that he exists. God, I mean—not Derbyshire, whom I have met in person. Although, come to think of it, my encounter with the featherless biped (no, not a plucked chicken, the other kind) which called itself “John Derbyshire” is by … [Read More]

The latest validation of James Burnham’s insight that “liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide” comes from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.  As the Daily Mail reported recently, Dr. Williams wrote an irenic letter to Moslem leaders in which he wrote that the doctrine of the Trinity “is difficult, sometimes offensive” to Moslems and in which he also apologized for … [Read More]

Without my winter beard I’ve got a baby face, and am often mistaken for a 30-year-old. But teaching college students gives me frequent reminders that I really am fortysomething. These kids don’t remember Communism. It collapsed in Eastern Europe while they were in tiny diapers, and most of what they know of the Soviet bloc comes from the character Borat. So … [Read More]

One thing about paleocons—they’re not predictable. When I mentioned in a previous article the fact that Pius XII helped save Jews and Serbs from genocide through (among many tactics) ordering priests to issue fake baptismal certificates, it never occurred to me that readers would write in denouncing me for slandering that pope. Would the great Pope Pius countenance deceit, even … [Read More]

Quebec, la belle province, was once a land as Christ-haunted as Flannery O’Connor’s American South, with classical parish churches at the heart of towns and cities, and crucifixes in classrooms, courtrooms, and most prominently looking down from on high above the Speaker’s Chair in the Parliament of Quebec. (Alfred Hitchcock’s “I Confess” superbly depicts Quebec’s Catholic society in the 1950s). While … [Read More]

Yesterday, in an already much remarked upon column, David Brooks reviewed the state of the kulturkampf  between “assertive atheists” and “defenders of faith” by way of a discussion of developments in neurobiology.  Brooks’ central insight is that the “cognitive revolution is not going to end up undermining faith in God, it’s going to end up challenging faith in the Bible” by … [Read More]

In response to my recent piece on science and religion, one of the commenters, GM, took me to task:  “you may want to consider and ask why atheists seem angry.  There’s no indication that you understand why.”  I have to confess, GM was right:  I do not understand why some atheists are so angry. I have no trouble understanding that some … [Read More]