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Looking for a New Parish—and Crossing Some Off the List

Looking for a New Parish—and Crossing Some Off the List

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Twenty-six years ago, Niagara Falls, New York, had 14 Roman Catholic parishes. However, due to the fact that the city loses about 1,000 citizens a year (death and a mass-migration to southern climes), as well as a sex scandal that has had a stranglehold on the Diocese...
A Conversion Story

A Conversion Story

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An adult conversion to Catholicism—or indeed to any form of orthodox Christianity—is not an everyday occurrence in the American academy. Most secular academics seem to receive any profession of Christian faith with a vague sense of embarrassment. Adherence to Judaism...
Rehumanizing the Humanities

Rehumanizing the Humanities

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I have to admit to a tendency for my eyes to glaze over when people talk about a crisis in the humanities. I’ve been hearing about their imminent collapse my entire professional life. I was already being told forty-five years ago, when I was a graduate student in...
A Modest Proposal for Reeducating the Bishops

A Modest Proposal for Reeducating the Bishops

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Our Lord gave us a clear precept about language: “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from the Evil One” (Matthew 5:37). And likewise, from the Old Testament: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for...
Catholics Are Rapidly Losing Ground

Catholics Are Rapidly Losing Ground

Column, Guest Author, Read

Last week the Pew Research Center released a new survey on religion in America; their first major study of this type since 2014. Upon the survey’s publication, I could almost hear a collective groan from Catholics, since we’ve come to approach such polls with a sense...
Liturgical Stooges

Liturgical Stooges

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A long time ago, we hired a team of carpenters and plumbers to renovate a bathroom. Moe, Larry, and Curly were not masters of their craft. I should have fired them as soon as I saw what they had done to one of the doorways, removing the support for one of the uprights...
Putting an End to the Liturgy Wars

Putting an End to the Liturgy Wars

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The memories are still vivid, even though it was a long time ago. Having been born in 1956, I’m just old enough to remember the confusing and tumultuous era of “the changes” that came after the Second Vatican Council, particularly regarding the Mass. One elderly...