The Lenten lunch at Lviv’s Holy Spirit Seminary was sacrificially bland—and Ukrainian cuisine ain’t exactly Cajun to begin with—but I wouldn’t have traded it for a feast. For it served up a unique and surprising encounter with the living past. “Do you see the priest at the end of the table?” asked the rector, Fr. Sviotoslav Shevchuk. Clearly the priest … [Read More]

The second part of this essay can be found here. With memories still slick from the worst blood-letting in history, followed by the less dramatic horrors of the Soviet “peace,” the modern-day evil I witnessed wasn’t the worst thing ever to have happened in the city of Lviv, western Ukraine. But it surely was the offspring of the grossly satanic … [Read More]

When H. G. Wells wrote his fantastic tale about a scientist who breeds human-animal hybrids with sadistic intent—created to destroy one another, plus any humans unfortunate enough to wash up on The Island of Dr. Moreau—that utopian socialist probably didn’t envision his own country becoming another island of lost souls.   Morally speaking, however, modern-day Britain increasingly resembles the futuristic dystopia … [Read More]

Recently the poster advertisement at the bus stop on 8th and Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, a mile from the Capitol, had a spring make-over. Bye-bye went one of the mysterious city-wide tributes to Nancy Pelosi. (“Congratulations, Madame Speaker” read the slogan above the over-stretched visage of the underprivileged daughter of the late mayor of Baltimore. There was no attribution to the ad’s … [Read More]

“’Morning, ma’am,” I greeted her, wishing I had a cap to doff but making up for it with a broad smile. “Why, good ’mornin’, son! How ya’ feelin’?” answered the sprightly little black church lady, well past retirement age and wearing a beautiful white hat with little lavender-colored flowers. So began a simply beautiful Sunday, the first real day of spring … [Read More]