Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 128

Are You in Northern Virginia?

I’ll be speaking at the Arlington Diocesan “Risk Jesus” conference tomorrow with Jennifer Fulwiler. If you’re in the area come and join us! I’ll be doing two talks: first my conversion story and second “The Risk of Faith” Get a boost in your faith and join us at Hylton Memorial Chapel Events Center. Registration starts [Read More...]

Building a Beautiful Church in the Poor Part of Town

Here’s a dilemma: my parish is in the worst socio economic area of our town. Across the street from our campus is a crappy old motel which was built along I-85 probably forty years ago. It’s a notorious flophouse. What goes on there? Suffice it to say that they offer weekly, daily and hourly rates…It’s [Read More...]

Where is Jesus?

Deacon Kandra has an excellent post here about the placement of the tabernacle in the new Christ’s Cathedral in California. Many people like it placed centrally behind the high altar, but that is a comparatively late innovation in Church history, and there are good reasons for it being placed elsewhere. When you visit the ancient [Read More...]

Witness from Albania

  This story is from Pope Francis’ visit to Albania. An old priest tells the story of how he was imprisoned, tortured, sentenced to death and finally spent over thirty years in a forced labor camp for his Catholic faith. During his visit to Tirana, Albania, on Sept. 21, Pope Francis met with priests, religious, [Read More...]

From Kilvert’s Diary

One of the delights of my life is the diary of the Rev Francis Kilvert. If you would like to learn more about him go to this article I wrote for Imaginative Conservative. Kilvert was an Anglican country parson in the 1870s. He kept his diary regularly and recorded the scenes and people from his [Read More...]

Christ’s Cathedral California: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I’ve taken the time to look at the pictures and plans for The Diocese of Orange’s Christ Cathedral and it presents some very interesting problems and solutions. First of all one has to take the building as it is and wonder at it. We are confronted first of all with the problem of modern architecture for [Read More...]

Exciting Church for Our Lady

Before this blog went to Patheos, every October I ran a “Stick ‘Em Up!” campaign. This was a plea for readers to donate to my work by hitting the “Donate” button and helping out your poor padre blogger. Now, of course, I get sent checks every month for huge amounts from the people at Patheos [Read More...]

Should the Catholic Church be Up to Date?

Should the Catholic Church adapt herself and get up to date? Holy deacon Kandra reports here on a survey on why Catholics stop going to Mass. four major reasons why some Roman Catholics stop going to church, among them: Disagreement with church doctrine on birth control, women as priests, homosexuality; A view that there are [Read More...]

Call on the Woman Who Tramples the Serpent

So many saints tell us that the Blessed Virgin has great power over Satan. “The rosary is the weapon against evil” they say. “Call on the Blessed Mother in time of need!” they command us. The exorcists say how the demons hate with a terrible hatred the Mother of the Lord. Why is this and [Read More...]

Is Bishop Cupich A Closet Anglican?

John Allen here with his usual common sense analysis. He acknowledges Archbishop of Chicago designate Cupich as a “moderate left leaning” character, and mentions the snide comments that Cupich is leading the “Anglicanization” of the Catholic  Church. In other words, in the opinion of some Cupich is just another wishy washy peace and justice liberal [Read More...]