Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 147

All You Need is Love…

Love is all you need? A United Church of Christ minister, Chuck Currie writes here at the HuffPo about religious freedom. He disagrees with the recent moves by some Christians to have the freedom to not purchase certain types of contraceptives for employees and he does not want them to have the freedom to hire [Read More...]

English Lord Patten to Take Vatican Communications Job

Chris Patten, a veteran English Catholic politician will head up the Vatican’s new communications and media team. The Catholic Herald reports here. former chairman of the BBC Trust and former chancellor of the University of Oxford, will serve as president of the commission. The 70-year-old British public servant is a Catholic and was co-ordinator of [Read More...]

A Prophecy: The Vocations Crisis is Over

When I say this is a prophecy I don’t want to suggest that I have had some sort of supernatural vision. This is not a prophecy in that sense, but a prophecy because prophets not only sometimes have supernatural revelations, but they are people who are also able to see the big picture, understand the [Read More...]

Would You Embrace a Pedophile Priest?

Pope Francis famously kissed a man with a horrible physical deformity, but what if he kissed a man who was even more horribly deformed in his soul? What if he were to go to prison to hear the confession of a pedophile priest? The Pope has met with some victims of priestly sex abuse and [Read More...]

Catholic Church – Auditorium or Temple?

  This article on church architecture challenges modern Catholic Church architecture. What is it all about anyway? What is a church for? Architects will quibble about the “form follows function” dictum, but assuming that there is at least some truth to it, we can then ask, “What is a church for?” If we are being [Read More...]

Francis and the Devil

In my latest article for Aleteia I comment on Pope Francis’ powerful battle with Satan. Pope Francis is often hailed as a pope of surprises, but his open belief in a personal devil may be one of his most surprising characteristics. In modern church circles it is more fashionable to speak of “evil” than to [Read More...]

Tough Love and the Sacred Heart

Here is this week’s article for Integrated Catholic Life. Readers of the blog will notice that it is re-worked ideas that have been posted here previously. The love of God is sweet and tender, but it is also astringent and tough. We have to be sweet and salty at the same time. We have to [Read More...]

Will Married Priests Solve the Vocations Crisis?

Here is my latest article for ZENIT asking whether admitting married men to the priesthood will solve the crisis in vocations. It would certainly seem, at first glance, to solve a lot of problems, not only in the developed countries where, arguably, the mandatory vow of celibacy is one of the greatest deterrents to increased vocations, [Read More...]

Off to Castel Gandolfo…

…the Pope is not. Edward Pentin, writing at the National Catholic Register says here that neither Pope Francis nor Pope Benedict will be making use of Casetl Gandolfo for their summer vacation this year. Which brings me to point out that I have two weeks of vacation coming up and have not decided where to [Read More...]

Mass is Boring…

…is a complaint we too often hear. But why is that and what’s to be done about it? Part of the problem is that we live in a high energy entertainment culture. People go and sit down together and they shift into an audience/consumer mindset. Subconsciously it’s like they have settled down to watch TV, [Read More...]