Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 234

What a Former Evangelical Looks for in the Pope

I was brought up in an Evangelical, fundamentalist home. Those are my roots, and my coming into full communion with the Catholic Church is a fulfillment,  not a negation of my devout, Bible based heritage. Therefore, what do I look for in a new pope? What are the foundational principles of my Christian perception which [...]

What a Liberal Priest Really Means…

Yesterday in the Washington Post I was featured with some other Catholic writers in an amusing piece called “If I Were Pope” Among my fellow contributors was Fr James Martin SJ. Earlier today I posted a response to Fr Martin’s opinions which was unworthy, and in which I violated a promise I made when I [...]

Can You Love a Pedophile?

What I’m digging at is the understandable hatred and rage and disgust our society feels about pedophiles. If you read the comments on blogs and news items online people say things like they should be castrated without anesthetic, buried alive, burnt to death slowly and so forth. The Christian faith, however says that even a [...]

If I Were Pope

I have been invited to take part in a guest column at the Washington Post on “If I were Pope.” Go here to read it.

Papabile Profile

Here is my profile on Cardinal Peter Erdo of Budapest.

Facts About Pedophile Priests

A reader asked for the sources for a couple of my statements in a post recently about celibacy and sex abuse. Namely the assertion that most abuse is perpetrated by married men not single men–therefore marriage for Catholic priests will not solve the sex abuse problem. The reader also questioned my assertion that most of [...]

Frodo for Pope!

So I’m driving my sixteen year old over to the youth group and I observe that it is really pretty cool when you think about it–all the Cardinals gathering from the four corners of the globe to elect a pope. I mean, what other religion has something like that? All geared up in their red [...]

Papabile Profiles

Here is today’s papabile profile: Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston.

Contraception and Celibacy

What has contraception to do with celibacy? The quick witted might observe that celibacy is the most effective contraception. It’s also a sure fire way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. However, that’s not the point of the headline. Instead I’ve been thinking about the way artificial contraception has radically changed the whole  idea not only [...]

Papabile Profile

Here is today’s Papabile Profile: Cardinal Peter Turkson from Ghana