Speaking of blogging on the pope’s visit to the U.S.–see our news below about our John on Godspy.com
–out good friend Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom.com is scheduled to appear Saturday on CNN to discuss the topic of Catholic blogging on the pope’s visit. The time (barring breaking news, Lisa added in her e-mail, like earthquakes in [...]

Clan Murphy/Idylls Press has a personal and immediate interest in the current “mortgage crisis”: we’re trying to sell our lovely old 1915 Craftsman house so we can complete our relocation to Ashland, OR. (Dan is already down there–Ashland is 200 miles south of our present home in Salem–and the double-rent/weekend commute is getting s-p-e-n-d-y. Salem’s [...]

Tags: catholic social teaching, Clan Murphy, George Bailey, housing, idylls press, It's a Wonderful Life, mortgage crisis

As we all wind up for several days of joyous celebrations with family and friends, here’s a bit of levity to accompany your last-minute orgy of gift-shopping and present wrapping, courtesy of our favorite Catholic jazz singer, Harry Connick, Jr.–seriously, his Christmas album (not the one featured in the skit!) is a classic–and the Rev. [...]

Tags: Christmas, Harry Connick, Mad TV

“To regret religion is to regret Western civilization” — that’s the thesis of an insightful and eloquent essay by Theodore Dalrymple, a physician and non-believer. He politely takes the “New Atheists” (Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, et. al) to task for their shrill militancy, “bad temper,” and general lack of civility or common decency [...]

Tags: atheism, Christopher Hitchens, God is not Great, intolerance

The always deeply insightful papal retreat master, Fr. Cantalamessa, has written the best piece I’ve read on Mother Teresa’s “Dark Night of the Soul” as revealed in her newly published letters.
Here’s an excerpt, relevant to the world of Catholic letters:
The world of today knows a new category of people: the atheists in good faith, those [...]

Tags: atheism, Mother Teresa, spiritual darkness