Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 165

Facing Death at Easter

During Lent this year our small parish community faced sudden death five times. In started when a father of three in his early fifties–a faithful usher, parent at our parish school, Knight of Columbus and girls basketball coach collapsed with a heart attack. Ten days later a good friend of his and a man who’d [Read More...]

Mantilla the Hon on Queen Sophia

Guest blogger Mantilla Amontillado is the founder of Veritas Vestments. She holds a degree in Ecclesiastical Haberdashery from Salamanca University. She has done the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella three times on horseback and is engaged to the famous matador, Senor Augusto Torquemada. What you say Hon? What do I think of Pope Francis never [Read More...]

Science Does Not Disprove God

This excellent, clearly written article explains how the complexity of the physical universe demands a designer. But has modern science, from the beginning of the 20th Century, proved that there is no God, as some commentators are now claiming? Science is an amazing, wonderful undertaking: it teaches us about life, the world, and the Universe. [Read More...]

The Joy of Rome

Robert Royal reflects here on his few days in Rome as a commentator for EWTN at the double canonization this weekend. As the events of the canonizations wound down this weekend, one of the most remarkable things about the atmosphere in Rome was not the usual Church politics of left and right, progressives and conservatives. [Read More...]

We Can’t Afford Married Priests?

Pascal Emmanuel Gobry admits to having confused thoughts about married priests here. The topic is confusing. As soon as you come up with a good reason for married priests a good reason not to have married priests presents itself. There are many different aspects of this discussion. Here’s one: Con: “We can’t afford married priests! [Read More...]

The Kilvert Connection

One of the things that drew me to England was the great literary heritage. I was drawn by the life and witness of the poet George Herbert and dreamed of being an English country parson. It did happen in the end. I lived for five idyllic years in an English village on the Isle of [Read More...]

Two Giant Popes

Here is my article for Aleteia contributing to the news coverage of the double canonization tomorrow. It connects J23 and JP2 to the steps toward unity with Anglicans. Thus the seemingly small decisions of Pope John and Pope John Paul II have brought many former Anglicans and Episcopalians not only into full communion with the [Read More...]

What is Bourgeois Oblige?

Here is my latest article for The Imaginative Conservative website. I’m suggesting a model of economics which is based on the principle that “to whom much is given much is required”–and that this extends to ordinary folk, not just the super rich. My father was a born again businessman. A fervent Evangelical Christian, he owned [Read More...]

Fallout From a Phone Call

Here’s what we know: Pope Francis did make a personal pastoral phone call to a woman in Argentina. It is believed that the woman is in an irregular marriage relationship. The woman’s husband claims that the Pope said it was okay for her to go to communion. That’s all we know. The Vatican press office [Read More...]

Gearing Up for Two Canonizations

Matthew Bunson writes here about the preparations in Rome for the double ceremony to canonize Pope John and Pope John Paul the Great. What a historic event, two popes present for the canonization of two popes! Even getting to Rome brought a sense of palpable excitement. The four-hour layover at Charles de Gaulle airport near [Read More...]