The oldest cathedral and the newest challenge June 2, 2021By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Baltimore Basilica, Commentary, The Catholic Difference It’s now the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but for native Baltimoreans of a certain vintage (like me) it is, was, and always will be “the Old Cathedral:” the first of its kind in the United States
The Easter explosion March 31, 2021By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, Easter, The Catholic Difference What happened on Easter Sunday was the most explosive experience in human history, shattering all previous expectations of human destiny.
The world episcopate and the German apostasy March 18, 2021By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference The first responsibility here lies with the Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, who should do what Pope St. Clement I did with the rowdy Corinthians in the immediate post-apostolic period and what Pope St. Gregory the Great did with brother bishops during the age of the Fathers: call the German bishops back to the “faith which was once for all delivered to the saints”
Father Mankowski, who died suddenly Sept. 3, was ‘off-the-charts brilliant’ September 16, 2020By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, Obituaries, The Catholic Difference He rarely expressed doubts about anything; but he displayed a great sensitivity to the doubts and confusions of those who had the humility to confess that they were at sea.
Rediscovering the reality of the Eucharist August 17, 2020By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference Teaching the truth of the Eucharist is thus a task for this moment, turning plague time into a time of renewed faith in the wonder of what we are offered in holy communion.
If not for the glory of God, then for what? August 6, 2020By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference Ad maiorem Dei gloriam [For the greater glory of God], often reduced to the abbreviation, AMDG, was the Latin motto of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. Georgetown Prep is a Jesuit school. So what happened to the D-word? What happened to God? Why did AMDG become AM[D]G while being translated into fundraising English?
Will Nancy Pelosi take a page from her father’s playbook? June 25, 2020By George Weigel Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference If inner-city and other low- and middle-income Catholic schools are emptied because of unbearable financial pressures on parents, there will be multiple victims.
Extraordinary evangelization in extraordinary times June 9, 2020By George Weigel Filed Under: Commentary, Coronavirus, The Catholic Difference What Father Sherbrooke has done at St. Patrick’s in London in his 17 years as its pastor is little short of miraculous.
Rediscovering baptism in plague time May 3, 2020By George Weigel Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference Let me urge you again: make this time of plague and quarantine the occasion to dig the “Catholic paper” out of your records, find your baptismal certificate, and learn the date of your baptism. And then, with appropriate celebration, ponder just what happened to you that day.
Flannery O’Connor and friends, revisited February 18, 2020By George Weigel Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Commentary, The Catholic Difference At the end, that is the deepest impression her letters leave: here is a woman of extraordinary courage whose configuration of her life to the Cross was a source of both personal strength and literary genius.
Christmas, freedom and obedience December 25, 2019By George Weigel Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference The Christmas story is a lengthy meditation on a counterintuitive but essential truth: true freedom, genuine liberation, comes through freely chosen obedience to God’s purposes.
The well-fought fight December 18, 2019By George Weigel Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference Alas, like many other hymns, “For All the Saints” is an endangered species today, gutted by parish music directors and pastors who commit the grave sin of not singing a hymn in its entirety — or worse, who bowdlerize the lyrics to coddle the sensibilities of the Church of Nice.
