Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 80

Help a Novice

During our recent visit to Italy I was so blessed to visit the monks of Norcia. Brother Philip is a former student of mine who is a novice there. He’s the guy pictured here with the splendid red beard. The mostly American monks have pioneered monastic life i the beautiful medieval walled town of Norcia–the [Read More...]

Did the Pope Say You Can’t Cling to Your Guns and Your Religion?

There is a lot of talk going on about the Pope’s recent statements about weapons manufacturers or those who invest in the weapons industry. Here’s an article about it. Turns out everybody can take a deep breath. First of all, the pope was speaking off the cuff in an interactive conversation with a group of [Read More...]

Can a Good Catholic Still Be a Global Warming Skeptic?

I’ve had an interesting question from a person preparing to enter the Catholic Church. He disagrees with the pope about global warming. Does than mean he can’t be a good Catholic? He thinks the pope is wrong about global warming. How does that affect what he’s come to believe about papal authority? Pope Francis has [Read More...]

The Shroud the Pope and the “Strip of Cloth”

Can the main stream media get any dumber than when they try to report on religion? This article at CNN reports on Pope Francis’ recent visit to Turin where he prayed before the Shroud. Pope Francis prayed Sunday before the Shroud of Turin, a strip of cloth that some believe was used for the burial of [Read More...]

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Here’s a list of the cool Catholic stuff I saw on my two weeks in England and Italy: The site on Tower Hill where St Thomas More and St John Fisher were beheaded St Henry Walpole’s name carved by him in wall of the Salt Tower at the Tower of London Tyburn where the priests were [Read More...]

The Hand of St Etheldreda

Today is the memorial of St Etheldreda–a saint I have come to admire for, I suppose, not the best reasons. First of all I rather like her because of her name. Come now, St Etheldreda is a corker of a saint’s name you must admit. Then I like her because she was not only a [Read More...]

Laudato Si….Too Much of a Good Thing?

There’s an amusing scene in the film Amadeus in which Mozart asks the rather dim witted Emperor if he likes the opera Mozart has just performed for the first time. The Emperor ponders for a moment and tries to pin down what he doesn’t like about the work and finally waves his hand dismissively and says, [Read More...]

England and Italy Round Up

Sorry no blogging for the last two weeks, but I’m now back in the USA after an utterly fantastic two weeks in England and Italy. Both weeks were more pilgrimage than vacation, but that’s what a true pilgrimage is: a holy vacation. I’ll be writing more later as it all continues to sink in but [Read More...]

England I Loathe and Love

This latest visit to England has been full of mixed emotions. Visiting as a tourist for the first time has given me a glimpse of a wonderful country where I spent twenty five years of my life through a new lens, and of course I felt nostalgic for England. Who wouldn’t on a perfect June [Read More...]

The Devil Fights Dirty

Here in Stratford-on-Avon some of us went to see Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta at the Swan . It was an excellent performance and one of the delights was to sit opposite a group of English schoolchildren and watch their faces. They were spellbound by the magic of the theater. The play itself reveals Marlowe’s rumbustious [Read More...]