The Catholic Thing

By David Warren Edgar Allan Poe mentioned three things, in connection with the Earthly Paradise, or perhaps there were four; I don't pretend to be a Poe expert. But so far as I remember, they were: life in the open air, the love of a good woman, and the creation of some original form of beauty. These struck me at the time (I was a teenager, and not yet consciously a Christian) as a useful list, so...

By Stephen P. White Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Ascension. (Depending on where you are; check your local listings.) It's worth pondering: Why did Christ ascend? Why, having conquered death, did He not remain? Wouldn't it have been simpler for a manifestly divine, resurrected Jesus to walk the earth, for however many millennia it might take, converting sinners by the unmistakable f...

By Robert Royal It's often been said, though perhaps not often enough lately, that the Devil can cite Scripture for his purposes. Whether the Evil One is operative in many of the current approaches to Scripture – in university departments and some Church circles – is a question best left to true authorities and even exorcists. But there's no question that the people who wrote Final Report of Study...