The Republican candidates for president would have us believe that they are strong, manly men who would stand up to Putin, destroy daesh, contain Iran, and generally “restore” America’s power throughout the world. But they cannot even stand...
One of the first things I noticed in Rome was the bodies. While praying in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva on my first visit, I happened to glance to my left, and there was St. Catherine of Siena, literally, lying under an altar for all to see! A...
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] This past weekend here in Wichita, I participated in the Eighth Day Institute’s symposium, Soil and Sacrament: The World as Gift; Rod Dreher has a couple of nice write-ups about it, here and here. For m...
Louisville, Kentucky. “Reading Florence King is like opening a blast furnace,” reporter Liz Trotta said of her years ago. That fire is now out. The writer and satirist died on January 6th in Fredericksburg, Virginia, not far from the Distr...
My wife and I were married at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, on the near west side of South Bend, Indiana. I’ve written about her before, that Church, fashioned nearly two centuries ago by the hands of her first Irish and German parishione...
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS, is a large city, a regional center for manufacturing, medicine, finance, and the arts. It’s also a politically conservative place, which means that you don’t hear a lot of talk about ...
Over the years, I have made the case, here and elsewhere, for the recovery of the traditional work of poetry. The habits of mind and body that we cultivate and that, in turn, shape us in the mastery of this or that particular craft do not ...
Saginaw, MI This post is part of a series that will explore what prominent thinkers can teach us about today’s public multiversity, the modern university with its many colleges, departments, and other administrative units that play multiple...
I heard someone say recently, “Porches are back. They’re on all the new houses.” And I thought, “No, no they’re not.” Porches on newer houses are hardly more than façades, sort of like shutters. My shutters don’t even shut; and if yo...
Earlier this year, after the Charlie Hebdo shootings, I reflected on the conversations that may or may not ensue from the changing of a facebook profile picture. As my facebook news feed in the last few days has changed into a wash of the ...
