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Just to clarify: I think the basic question I was posing in my musical posts was not why don’t we ditch hymns…not at all. No, it was rather…why hasn’t the Church in the U.S. done what the Church asks in terms of music? Why hasn’t it prioritized  what the Church wants to be prioritized, as…

Just to add to whatever else is out there regarding St. Francis of Assisi on today, his feastday. 1) Beware of caricatures. There is a mystery at the core of St. Francis – although there are many writings about him produced very close to his lifetime, drawing on the memories of those who knew him,…

The comments in my music post below are all excellent, well-informed and interesting. I’m just going to pull one, though, because it’s particularly helpful in understanding why we are where we are. The comment is from Fr. Augustine Thompson ,O.P., who is on the faculty of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, and is the…

I have been planning to do a well-thought out, sourced post on this topic, but, let’s just go the slapdash and probably garbled route instead, a decision inspired by reading this post at Mary Jane Ballou’s blog. No, no, no – it’s not that Mary Jane was slapdash. It’s that she said exactly what had…

For weeks, Andrew Sullivan has been teasing us with hints of his about-to-be-published book, The Conservative Soul, with the added drama of the need to pulp the entire first print run because of misplaced pages.  I was interested to run across an early review of the book today – in Books and Culture by the…

A priest of the Underground Catholic Church reflects on his vocation: How is faith transmitted in our province? There are many ways, but one of the most important is the family. Despite many challenges, faith is still transmitted within Catholic families. I was born in an industrial city in 1973, during China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).…

That’s all I could think of as I consider the horror in Pennsylvania, coupled with that in Colorado last week. What possesses a person to victimize the innocent, to terrorize, brutalize and kill those who have absolutely nothing to do with them?  What black hole of twisted self-regard can revel in the pain of another,…

From my email box and other places: Do bookmark Fr. Z – he is using the month of October to work his way through the Mysteries of the Rosary, offering insights from the Fathers on each. Pro-Woman Answers to Pro-Choice questions – a new offering of Feminists for Life. Fr. Martin Fox has really interesting…

One of the accusations you frequently hear about Catholic Life in the US today concerns parish registration/offertory envelopes/weddings/schools. As in: "My sister wanted to get married in her parish, but the pastor said that since they didn’t use their envelopes enough, they couldn’t…" And so on. I’ve never encountered anything like this. Parish registration –…

Today’s forecast, offered as I drove everyone to school this morning: "20% chance of rain, high 82." Well, I suppose someone had to be in that 20%. (Thundering sound effects not included in post.)
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