History
John XXIII and the Jews
The press called him a caretaker pope. Elected on October 28, 1958, at the age of 77, he was expected to warm the Chair of Peter for a few years without making any great waves. […]
History
History
The Hunter’s Point Bible War
On Friday morning, November 24, 1871, nine-year-old Catherine Ann Dennen entered her public school building and sat down in the school’s main room with her fellow students. The school’s principal entered the room and began […]
History
Shedding Light on Misunderstood Knights
Michael Haag, The Tragedy of the Templars: The Rise and Fall of the Crusader States (Harper: New York, 2013) 448 pp, paperback, $16.99 Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Knights Hospitaller in the Levant, c. 1070-1309 (Palgrave Macmillan: […]
History
Not Everyone Loves Raymond
That notorious Jew-hater Ramón Peñafort, the DOMINICAN friar then a canon lawyer in Rome and ultimately the author both of the Decretals for Pope Gregory IX and the Siete Partidas for Alfonso X,”1 “[h]e went […]
History
American Anti-Catholicism and the Confessional
The highest tides of anti-Catholic feeling in this country occurred in the 19th century. The standard explanation for this simply points to Protestant fears that the waves of Catholic immigrants, especially from Ireland, would take […]
History
So Many Jesuses, So Little Time
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of […]
History
Decline and Fall. And Hope.
Perhaps Rome is not perishing; perhaps she is only scourged, not utterly destroyed; perhaps she is chastened, not brought to nought. It may be so; Rome will not perish, if the Romans do not perish. […]
History
On Writing a History of the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church is the longest-enduring institution in the world, and her historical character is integral to her identity. The earliest Christians claimed to be witnesses to the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus, thereby […]
History
Christopher Columbus, the Crusades, and the End of the World
Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem by Carol Delaney Free Press: New York, 2012 319 pp, paperback, $16.00 Another Columbus Day is upon us and while the protests are not as sizeable or virulent as […]
History
Lord of the Dance
“Medicine-man, relent, restore— Lie to us,—dance us back the tribal morn!” — Hart Crane, “The Bridge: The Dance” Please take “Lord of the Dance” out of your hymnbooks, assuming you don’t attend a Gnostic church. […]