April 13th Comments (126) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

During the celebration of Holy Mass on Easter Sunday morning, as a torrential rain pummeled St. Peter’s Square, Benedict XVI looked out at the sea of umbrellas and soaking pilgrims and urged the people….

February 28th Comments (589) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

That was the title that came to mind after reading the report of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in America. It was not….

January 31st Comments (297) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

After all the talk - in a post on an election! - about foster care on the blog recently, I was pleasantly surprised to see the reading in my breviary this morning, the feast of St. John Bosco. It may provide…

January 5th Comments (231) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Everyone knows that, in these days, we find ourselves in a moment of change and decision, the outcome of which will …

December 26th Comments (55) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

This is not quite a poem, but I guess it should be read like one…

December 22nd Comments (34) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

After Nicolas Sarkozy’s historic speech in the Basilica of St. John Lateran and today’s news about Tony Blair’s reception into full communion with the Catholic Church, we are taking bets …

December 21st Comments (3) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Some speeches are important not because they offer original ideas, but simply because they expand the realm of what can be said in public. Whether or not…

December 14th Comments (142) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Well, after what I wrote yesterday, I couldn’t very well ignore today’s feast, could I? If my class has a patron saint, I suppose …

December 13th Comments (5) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Inexcusably, I forgot to quote Dryden’s famous ode about St. Cecilia on her feast day (and he was a convert to Catholicism!). Today, I won’t be so remiss. Here’s one from a convert in the other direction.

December 5th Comments (203) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

This one should be easier than John Lennon’s line from “Julia”….

November 22nd Comments (112) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Taking advantage of the coincidence…

November 14th Comments (192) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

I wound up looking at two editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica last week, and the differences between them were quite striking, in terms of the changing view of Elizabeth’s reign predicted by Belloc…

November 5th Comments (221) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Guy Fawkes Day, November 5, 2007
Rome, Italy

The coincidence is just too much to resist….

September 20th Comments (668) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

A Vietnamese priest friend was recently in his home town to attend his father’s funeral. The Church in Vietnam, of course, is