He is a preacher, or at least has a strong desire to be one. His last congregation lured him 1500 miles from where he and his wife and children had been living. They gave him a job as a pastor, but kept cutting his pay as the church members aged and as the economy deteriorated. Finally [...]
Julian Ahlquist, philosophy teacher at Chesterton Academy Stockbridge, Massachusetts - proof that any fool can go to church. Detail of stained glass at the Divine Mercy Shrine, Stockbridge. See Luke 7:38. Rosary and zuchetto of Bl. John Paul II, on display at the shrine in Stockbridge. Blessed George of the Marians of [...]
From an email I wrote to a friend ... Pope Francis may not have used the most measured words when talking about gays on the airplane, but the fact is the love of Christ trumps our sins. This is not to say that we cannot reject the love of Christ through sin, but that God is [...]
My wife Karen and I are on our annual pilgrimage to the American Chesterton Society Conference. This year the conference will be held at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and will feature Peter Kreeft as keynote speaker as well as my own troupe Theater of the Word Incorporated performing our play Socrates Meets Jesus, based on Kreeft's [...]
On August 5 (a week from this coming Monday) I will appear on The Journey Home on EWTN as Orestes Brownson, one of the most fascinating Catholic converts in American history. Me as Orestes Brownson One of the things Brownson strove to communicate in his writings was the cooperation of grace and nature. For Brownson, the [...]
Crestwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis near where I live, has gone through some hard times. At one point Crestwood was the home of Crestwood Plaza, "where the big stores are". Crestwood Plaza was such a popular shopping mall that one year, a week or two before Christmas, it took me over an hour to [...]
When people say, "Priests should not be celibate!" they don't mean what that implies. For a Catholic, that implies that priests would raise families - a hefty calling, to be "father" to a parish and "father" to your sons and daughters at the same time. But people don't mean, "Priests should be free to marry [...]
Rod Dreher at The American Conservative has written about the Scandal in St. Louis and mentions me and some of the things I've posted recently on my own blog. Rod's concluding sentences speak directly to the spiritual turmoil I now find myself in ... It is very, very hard to walk the tightrope between cynicism and credulity; [...]
The liberalists have long liked the slogan We are Church. As unpoetic and gramatically jarring as that phrase is, it's probably better than what Wikipedia says is the German equivalent, Wir Sind Kirche. That such a phrase is given a German equivalent - what with all that German bullying we had to deal with from 1870 to 1945 [...]
This week's Featured Grunky Videos TEEN AGED CATHOLIC GROOVY! It's Relevant! Click here to watch. BEER AND BOOKS - Joseph Pearce on Passion and Reason in Romeo and Juliet. Click here to watch. GRUNKY MYSTERY OF THE WEEK - Sheriff Andy and Barney try to figure out "Who Killed Mayberry"? Click here to watch. Click here to Like Grunky on Facebook!
