Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 208

Getting Used to My New Papa

Frank Weathers reflects here about the new pope: Early on, in the midst of the preparations for the Conclave, while we all wondered who would emerge as our next pope, I made the following statement: “I’m like the grizzled noncom who doesn’t really care who the Commandant of the Marine Corps is, as long as he’s [Read More...]

Don’t Be Hasty

Joseph Susanka reminds us here not to be too hasty with the new pope. I am duly chastised. One of the problems with the new media is the speed in which things are published and the speed at which responses are expected. A few weeks ago, it was known simply as  “The Interview.” Say those words, [Read More...]

Here’s Benedict Helping Francis

Yesterday I got itchy about Pope Francis seemingly saying that evangelism was a ‘solemn nonsense’. Still pondering yesterday’s papal interview with Eugenio Scalfari I came across this article from Pope Benedict’s 2007 visit to Brazil. In the article Pope Benedict XVI discusses the matter of proselytization and says to the Latin American bishops, “To you [Read More...]

Yes, I Am Trying to Convert You!

Some time ago I had a long email conversation with an Evangelical friend about thing theological. I said to him, “Don’t worry. I simply want to dialogue with you. I don’t want to convert you.” He called me on it. He said, “First of all, I don’t really believe you. You do actually want me [Read More...]

An Archived Interview With Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh gives an interview with the BBC. Joan Bakewell’s preface is absurd. Waugh was simply shrewd and cautiously private. Joseph Trabbic comments on the interview here. My favorite Waugh quip from the interview–when asked if he is different now from his days in the aesthete set at Oxford he says, “Yes, in middle age [Read More...]

Nietzsche meets Therese

From the archives for this beautiful feast of St Therese…what happens when Therese meets Nietzsche? Go here

My Interview With Pope Francis

I was sitting at my desk when my secretary knocked on the door. I could see she was excited and breathless. “I have the Pope on the phone for you!” “Your Holiness, this is unexpected!” “I would like you to have a dialogue with you. However, since you are in the United States I would [Read More...]

The Grumpy Old Guy and the Little Girl

Today’s feast day for St Jerome falls happily the day before the feast of St Therese of Lisieux. St Therese said, “How different are all the saints! In heaven the greatest doctor of the church will sit down with a little child.” So it is with these two. St Jerome–the cave dweller and patron of [Read More...]

The Magnificent Mont St Michel

When I lived in England I used to make my annual Benedictine retreat at the magnificent monastery of Mont St Michel. Like an embodiment of St Michael in stone–it was planted on an island in the midst of not only the sea, but surrounded by unpredictable shifting tides and miles of quicksand. The chaotic bay [Read More...]

Benedict on Beauty

“Already as a boy, helped by my parents and the parish priest, I had discovered the beauty of the Liturgy, and I came to love it more and more because I felt that the divine beauty appears in it and that heaven unfolds before us. The second element was the discovery of the beauty of [Read More...]