Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 192

Why is Pope Francis Person of the Year?

Here are my comments for Aleteia on Pope Francis’ selection as Pope Francis as Person of the Year. While all Catholics rejoice in the widespread popularity of Pope Francis, many Catholics are also dubious of the motivation and manipulation of his image and message by those who are enemies of the Catholic church. Because of [Read More...]

Of Teepees and Tabernacles

We are building a new church in our parish. Go here to learn more about it. To lead the effort I have been brushing up and thinking much about church architecture. Looking around at the dismal buildings which have been presented as Catholic churches over the last fifty years, one has to ask where on [Read More...]

Duncan Stroik’s New Church in South Carolina

A new church by Duncan Stroik was dedicated last night in Spartanburg, SC. St Paul the Apostle is a splendid new church to seat 850. Why build a Catholic Church in a traditional style? Lots of reasons. First reason is that it proclaims the beauty and antiquity of the Catholic faith. We have a tradition [Read More...]

Global War on Christians

I reviewed John Allen’s important book The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution for Crisis magazine website here. The Anchoress gives an in depth and excellent outline and review of the book on her blog here. Christmas aside, the bottom line is this: in America we live in a habitual conceit of [Read More...]

Balancing the Canonization of Nelson Mandela

It is difficult to conceive how the secular press could become much more propagandistic than they are over the near canonization of Nelson Mandela. Crisis magazine website publishes this candid account of Mandela’s record. As was made clear by testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Mandela was personally involved in the targeting and timing [Read More...]

Of Greed and Grape Nuts

In the parish where I was an Anglican vicar there remained in the collective memory of the village a memorable predecessor named The Rev’d Christian William Hampton-Weekes. “Hampy” as he was called, was born in 1880. He was Vicar of Brading from 1934 to his death in 1948. Hampy was a bachelor and lived in [Read More...]

Greed and Grape Nuts

In the parish where I was an Anglican vicar there remained in the collective memory of the village a memorable predecessor named The Rev’d Christian William Hampton-Weekes. “Hampy” as he was called, was born in 1880. He was Vicar of Brading from 1934 to his death in 1948. Hampy was a bachelor and lived in [Read More...]

Blame and the Immaculate Conception

It has been such a crazy busy day that it’s now 8pm and I’m just getting around to this blog post which has been sitting in my noggin all day. The Immaculate Conception reminds us of the original problem with original sin: blaming others. When things go wrong the first thing we do is blame [Read More...]

Persecution of Christians

John Allen’s book The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution is an excellent and sobering read for Advent. The result of his usual meticulous research and objective reporting, Allen chronicles the growing persecution of Christians worldwide. What’s interesting about the book is its scope. We usually think of this as [Read More...]

For Advent – The Four First Things

Here is my latest article for National Catholic Register: to stand the Advent tradition on its head–not the four last things, but the four first things: I’m thinking of the foundation principles, not just of the Catholic faith, but of everything that is. If you don’t have the foundations in place, when the tempest rages, [Read More...]