Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 164

You Want Spaghetti or the Catholic Faith?

David Carlin observes here that as Cultural Catholicism dies out other advantages are won. When photography was invented in the middle of the 19th century some people feared that this new practice, especially when color would eventually be added to it, would doom the art of painting. Since the camera could represent visual reality much more [Read More...]

Is Pope Francis a Loose Cannon?

Vaticanista John Thavis reports here about the unease some Vatican officials feel about Pope Francis’ informal style. What are they to do with a Pope who makes informal pastoral phone calls, improvises his homilies at daily Mass, makes off the cuff remarks to journalists and basically says whatever he wants to whoever he wants? Thavis portrays [Read More...]

Is Religion Relevant?

All around me I see religious leaders trying to make the faith relevant for people. Whether it’s a Protestant pastor laying on parenting classes or the local megachurch advertising drug free rehab sessions, or maybe it is a Catholic priest doing his best to provide a hip hop sermon and a groovy style, or perhaps [Read More...]

Archbishop Rowan Williams is Happy Now

Archbishop Rowan Williams had a particularly rough ride as the Archbishop of Canterbury. A gentle, thoughtful scholar with a penchant for poetry, he was hardly the man to wade into battle against the enemies of Christianity. Always tentative and able to see the other side of the question, Williams presided over a church fraught with [Read More...]

Back to England Again

On Sunday I will head off to England for a short visit to attend my sister’s funeral. I’m looking forward to going. It will be a sad event, but Denise loved England too and loved an Englishman. The visit will be homage to her life and to my own love of the damp lands. I [Read More...]

John and John Paul – The Vine and the Trellis

Here is my latest article for Aleteia–a reflection on how Pope St John XXIII and Pope St John Paul II characterize the two main principles of Vatican II. C.S. Lewis once observed, “How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.” Each saint is unique because he [Read More...]

What is Tinkerbell Catholicism?

Here is my latest article for Catholic Online:  Do you remember that episode in Peter Pan when Tinkerbell is about to perish and all the children in the audience are asked to clap their hands if they believe in fairies? Their clapping makes Tinkerbell come back to life. Tinkerbell seems to have invaded the mindset [Read More...]

Catholic Cardinal Condones Living in SIn

Tom Piatak has an excellent article over at Crisis website on Cardinal Kaspar’s scandalous proposals for marriage and divorce reform in the Catholic Church. Go here He references Brideshead Re-Visited and Julia’s admission that to marry Charles (both of them divorced) would be to “set up an rival good to God’s” Divorce and remarriage looms large in [Read More...]

Is it OK to Doubt Your Faith?

Here is my latest article for Integrated Catholic Life I’m glad doubting Thomas is a saint because gives us permission to question our faith. While we call him Doubting Thomas it might be better to call him Difficult Thomas or “Thomas who  had difficulties”. There is a difference between a doubt and a difficulty. Blessed [Read More...]

False Teachers Are Like Brute Beasts

When considering the depravity of our times it is easy to imagine that things are worse now than they’ve ever been. What is most shocking in our time is not only the corruption, greed, sexual immorality and depravity, but that so much of it has been accepted by the leaders of Christian churches. They actually [Read More...]