Doha, Qatar

Queering the Pitch

As the 2022 soccer World Cup finally ends over in the Gulf state of Qatar, it brings to a conclusion three weeks of not only sporting action but also, much less entertainingly, an entire stadium’s worth of colossal moral grandstanding. Qatar was the first Muslim nation to host a World Cup, which means, amazingly, that Islamic law prevails there, ...


Elder Dobrev, the Saint of Bailovo

True Religion

The Icelandic state is considering a ban on child circumcision—with predictable reactions. Secular humanists claim victory while religious groups claim persecution. Yet their very reaction only reinforces the straw-man view of faith ...

Freedom Highway, Atlanta

The Business End of Freedom

If you still believe big business is, as novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand famously described it, "€œAmerica's Persecuted Minority,"€ then you must be on the same amphetamines she was taking. Conservatives have a nasty habit of ...

Pope Francis

Is the Pope Toying with Heresy?

Are Catholic truths immutable? Or can they change with the changing times? This is the deeper question behind the issues that convulsed the three-week synod on the family of the 250 Catholic bishops in Rome that ended Saturday. A year ...

Pope Francis

US and Catholicism in Crisis

During the 1950s, the twin pillars of worldwide anti-communism were Dwight Eisenhower’s America and the Roman Catholic Church of Pope Pius XII. During the 1980s, the last decade of the Cold War, Ronald Reagan and the Polish pope, ...

Is the European Union Dying?

As the European Coal and Steel Community of Jean Monnet evolved into the EU, we were told a “United States of Europe” was at hand, modeled on the USA. And other countries and continents will inevitably follow Europe’s ...

Turn the Other Cheek

Although an acknowledged sinner for most of my adult life "€“ I chase women non-stop, drink to excess, smoke and gamble "€“ I have never left the easy foothills of faith, a Catholic faith imbued in me by my father, raised a Jesuit. ...

Pope Francis

The Pope You Will Always Have With You

"€œIncome inequality"€ has become the global warming of economics, so it's sad but hardly surprising to see Pope Francis getting in on the act. I"€™m a cradle Catholic. I"€™ve worked for two Catholic newspapers and a major ...

Barack Obama

Obama Sandbags the Archbishop

At the end of Sunday mass at the church this writer attends in Washington, D.C., the pastor asked the congregation to remain for a few minutes. Then, on the instructions of Cardinal Archbishop Donald Wuerl, the pastor proceeded to read ...

Santa Monica, California

Whose Country Is It, Anyway?

Half a century ago, American children were schooled in Aesop’s fables. Among the more famous of these were The Fox and the Grapes and The Tortoise and the Hare. Particularly appropriate this Christmas season, and every Christmas ...


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