Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 89

Francis and Humility

My article for Aleteia this week focusses on the humble actions of Pope Francis and their power to make a statement about the Catholic faith. While Francis’ gestures of humility are important, we should stop and ask ourselves what they are really worth. Critics say they are empty gestures. Washing the feet of prisoners, embracing [Read More...]

Catholics Worship Dagon the Fish God? Paganism and Propaganda…

I am featuring links to some of my archived articles through the blog and will be spending some time improving those links over the next few weeks. I hope the blog will soon be a resource with many more articles from various sources that I have written over the years. Here’s a long apologetics article first [Read More...]

What If the English Reformation Never Happened?

No time to blog today, but I have had time to skim this excellent article at the Catholic Herald. The 19-year-old King Henry VIII took to the field arrayed in cloth of gold and blue velvet, all spangled with golden hearts and K’s for his 25-year-old wife, Katherine of Aragon, whose honour he defended as [Read More...]

Ten Things Every Catholic Should Know About Confession

I’m struck by how few Catholics take advantage of the sacrament of confession, and I wonder why. I think one of the reasons is that many cradle Catholics were hauled off to confession every week as children and they weren’t really taught about the healing power of the sacrament. Their understanding of the sacrament was legalistic [Read More...]

The Healing Power of the Eucharist

One of the difficulties I find in being a pastor is how little we really expect the power of the sacraments to be real. We go through the motions of our religion, but don’t expect prayers to be answered and don’t really expect the sacraments to have any effect in our lives. It is our [Read More...]

Divorce and Remarriage? I Have No Opinion

Some time ago I was meeting with a Catholic woman who had been divorced and re-married. I welcomed her to our church and was having a new parishioner meeting with her when the subject of her marital situation came up. “I hope you’re going to be welcoming over this.” she said rather defensively. “Of course!” [Read More...]

Arrogance, Ignorance and the Unforgivable Sin

Don’t mistake arrogance for pride. Sure, arrogance is nauseating, and when it’s not nauseating it’s amusing. When a person struts around with his nose in the air, assumes a know-it-all attitude and bosses everyone around, first you get annoyed –”Who does this guy think he is??” Then, once you step back a bit you have [Read More...]

To Help the Widows and the Fatherless…

You may have heard about the Rogans, a traditional Catholic family who lost their Dad as he was driving them to the hospital so Mom could give birth to baby number eight. An oncoming car hit a deer which was thrown into the path of the family van. Mike was killed. Niki gave birth a few [Read More...]

Left Wing Writer Wants to Limit Freedom of Speech

Those of us who observe and criticize ideologies of all kinds observe that ideologues invariably fall into the most wild of hypocrisies. So the left wing–who have always been advocates of free speech–defenders of protesters, defenders of pornography, defenders of attacks on Christianity, defenders of attacks on the family–all in the name of freedom of [Read More...]

Reagan Shooter’s Weird Link With the Bush Clan

Do you remember John Hinckley–the guy who shot Ronald Reagan? This article explains how he is being “re-integrated” into society. In fact, he has been out and about off and on since 2003. John Hinkley and the Reagan assassination attempt is one of the hugest non-stories ever to be whitewashed from American history. Why? Because [Read More...]