Oriens

Obama sandbags the Archbishop

Gary Scarrabelotti — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:08:28 +0000

By Patrick J. Buchanan | Human Events | 31 January 2012

AT the end of Sunday mass at the church this writer attends in Washington, D.C., the pastor asked the congregation to remain for a few minutes.

Latin as I please

Gary Scarrabelotti — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:14:56 +0000

“Did the Romans really speak like this?”

By David Daintree^*

Now let’s consider Latin as a spoken language. I must begin, though, with a sort of disclaimer. I was brought up (like most of my readers, I imagine) in the Anglo-Celtic educational tradition that has not generally used Latin as a means of spoken communication for nearly two centuries. Other speech communities – the Vatican, of course, and some of the smaller European states – have done better than we in maintaining spoken Latin, but we have let it slide. For us Latin has been a written language only. We have lost the continuity of the oral tradition.

Conclave contenders: potential papabili

Gary Scarrabelotti — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:29:01 +0000

By Robert Mickens | The Tablet |31 December 2011

IN just a few months from now, Pope Benedict XVI will officially surpass Blessed John Paul II and become the oldest man in more than 100 years to serve as Bishop of Rome.

Being human in an Age of Unbelief

Gary Scarrabelotti — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:31:56 +0000

Without a right to life, all other rights are contingent.

by Charles J. Chaput^* | The Witherspoon Institute | November 8, 2011

Most of my sources in this essay are not Catholic. That shouldn’t be surprising. Catholics have no monopoly on respect for human dignity. Catholics do have a very long tradition of thinking about the nature of the human person and society, but I’d like to begin by setting the proper framework for our discussion.

Last year I had the good fortune to read Eric Metaxas’s wonderful book, Bonhoeffer. It’s a biography of the great Lutheran theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I’ve quoted Bonhoeffer’s work many times over the years. The reason is simple. I admire him. He could have been a professor. Instead he chose to be a pastor. He could have had a sterling academic career of lecturing about his ideas and his faith. Instead he chose to put them into action and to immerse himself in people’s lives. He was a man not of “values” in the meager modern sense, but of virtues in the classical and religious sense—the virtues of justice, courage, and love, all grounded in the deep virtue of faith in a loving God.

In Russian chill, waiting hours for touch of the holy

Gary Scarrabelotti — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 04:10:25 +0000

By Sophia Kishkovsky | The New York Times | November 23, 2011.

Day and night, tens of thousands of Russians have been lining up outside the Cathedral of Christ the Savior for a glimpse of a great relic - the belt of the Blessed Virgin Mary.