Heart of a Lion
I know Salvatore Cordileone from his stint on the monthly canon law segment on Catholic Answers Live. That was when he was the auxiliary bishop of San Diego. Today he is the archbishop of San...
View ArticleA Ticket to Ride
Saturday’s lead editorial in our local newspaper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, was titled “Who Should Represent California: Father Serra or Sally Ride?” There is a movement afoot (and more than afoot...
View ArticleA Different Sort of Pilgrimage
Friday night I had dinner at a Catholic Answers function. I sat next to Lenora, a loyal friend of the apostolate whose husband was unable to be there. I told her I was happy for Don, and she nodded....
View ArticleBouncing Out of the Church
At Michael Coren’s website the banner at the top of the main page features a mug shot of him at the left and, for the remainder of the rectangular space, a blue background on which are superimposed...
View ArticleMichael Coren Sidesteps the Real Issue in His Change of Religion
Saturday’s edition of the Toronto Star ran an opinion column by Michael Coren: “How a Change of Heart Led to a Backlash from the ‘Church of Nasty.’” In it Coren explains why he made a change of...
View ArticleWas Job's Behemoth a Dinosaur?
The Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation is a creationist organization for Catholics. It holds to the idea that our world was created in six literal days and that the Earth is very young—at most...
View ArticleA Tragedy in the Greek Sense
I last saw Don nearly forty years ago. We were on the veranda of a house at the top of the cliffs in Laguna Beach, watching the sunset and sipping fine California wine. Don was explaining how he had...
View ArticleLeaving the Church for Cheesecake
People leave the Catholic Church for all sorts of reasons, none of them sufficient but some of them better than others. I can understand if someone concludes that certain Catholic teachings are wrong...
View ArticleThose Inescapable Fathers
I spent the last few days at a men’s retreat in Nebraska. To a Californian, Nebraska is a peculiar state. It’s unrelentingly green and nearly flat. Low hills rise just enough to block distant vistas...
View ArticleThe Smartest Man I Ever Met
“I speak—more or less fluently—eight languages and have a reading knowledge of eleven others, necessary for my research.” He could have spoken to almost anyone in the world in that person’s native...
View ArticleI Blame John Milton for Same-Sex Marriage
Determining a bad idea’s antecedents usually is messy and often is impossible. Just when did a particular bad idea begin? Seldom is there an analogue to Athena coming fully formed from the forehead...
View Article"That's Not Quite What I Meant"
Language is a tricky thing. With the wrong words or the wrong construction, you can seem to mean things you don’t intend or can seem to intend things you don’t mean. You can get yourself into a lot...
View ArticleCatholic Answers' Early Years (or, Thanks for the Memories!)
A voice from the past—my own! I was cleaning out a storage closet at the office and discovered an early letter I wrote to two friends. It began: “This will bring you up to date on the status of...
View ArticleHow Should We Talk about the Atomic Bombs?
As the last weeks of July become the first weeks of August, print and digital media are filled with articles, letters, and comments about the 1945 atomic bombings. Year after year, the middle of...
View ArticleBelated Thanks to Roger Mahony
As my first book was going through the publishing process at Ignatius Press, the editors sought endorsements from prominent Catholics. Among those who were asked for a blurb was Roger Mahony, then...
View ArticleOut of the Mouths of Atheist Babes
I’ve kept the clipping for 27 years. It’s priceless. It sums up the whole professional-atheist mindset in a single, impolite word. The article first appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1988 and was...
View ArticleA Blast from the Past: Our First National Conference
You may have heard about—and may have attended—the national apologetics conferences that Catholic Answers has hosted the past few years in San Diego. Most people don’t know that they weren’t the...
View ArticleA New Pope in 2016?
I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a new pope a year from now. I’m not making a prediction—my prognosticational abilities are not sufficiently developed. I’m just bringing up a possibility, one...
View ArticleShould (or Can) Babies Be Baptized?
Evangelical Protestants say that infants are not fit candidates for baptism because they are unable to manifest a desire to “accept Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior.” Baptism, they say, is...
View Article20,000 Pounds Sterling per "Dot"
That Saturday was blustery, filled with persistent showers and a low overcast. I saw our weekend plans running into the storm drains. Late at night I woke, peeked out the bedroom window, and saw...
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