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Give a gift of Ratzinger's brilliance

The beginning of a new liturgical year is a suitable time to think about the liturgy in a broader and deeper way. Two recent books from Ignatius Press help us to do so in a devout and scholarly way. They are not for the casual reader, but parishioners looking to challenge their priests with some serious reading this Christmas would do well to consider them as gifts.

Cultural war is coming

In mid-November, Pope Francis gave an address to new communities and ecclesial movements in the Church that was, even by his high standards, utterly inspiring.

Over the rainbow is the King's Son

Is it just by coincidence that at the beginning and the end of the Bible there appears a rainbow?

Lessons rung up from a spill off the ladder

The other day, I fell off a ladder. More precisely, a ladder I propped up on a snow-slicked deck so I could clean out eavestroughs, slipped out from under me, dropping me seven or eight feet.

Feed the world

Jason Brown was making millions of dollars playing in the NFL when he suddenly quit last winter to answer a call to feed the poor. 

Merciful Father is always present

One of the highlights of the year just ending was the canonization of the greatest pope and dominant religious figure of our times, John Paul II. Over the years I had attended many such events as a reporter or broadcaster in the media section, but I thought that this time I would take it in as a pilgrim. That meant arriving in St. Peter’s Square some four hours or so before the Mass began. How to spend those hours in a suitably pious and productive way? After all, the breviary and rosary don’t take that long, even at a leisurely pace. 

Catholicism key to mystery of Shakespeare

Before I became convinced that William Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic, I was one of those conspiratorially minded chaps who believed Shakespeare was not the person who wrote the greatest single cache of plays in the English language. 

Christ is the one King who won’t be deposed

The Feast of Christ the King was instituted in 1925, just as the age of kings was ending. The natural order of society — kingly rule — for millennia, was replaced by the modern state. Christians who may not have known kings were reminded that Christ was their king. 

Religious liberty at stake

It’s doubtful Janet Epp Buckingham ever dreamed the dream of a law school at Trinity Western University would turn into a crucial test case for religious liberty. 

Speaking of sex

Ontario’s Ministry of Education has launched an online survey regarding the sex-ed component of a new health and physical education curriculum for elementary schools. According to an information package, the ministry is seeking input from 4,000 selected parents — one from every elementary school in the province — as it finalizes a new curriculum for implementation next September. 

Justice will only be served in forgiveness and healing

The problem with earthly justice is that sometimes it seems to take its good old time and other times it just doesn’t seem to exist at all.