In normal usage, the word apologetics means the craft of arguing effectively. But I use the word here in an analogous sense. Beauty does not argue. It doesn’t have to. When I say beauty is a form of apologetic, I mean that the most powerful appeal of Catholicism both to its own membership and

If Booth Tarkington wrote Seventeen today, he’d have to call it Ten. Yet those in charge of Catholic catechesis, judging from their directories and vetting of texts, urge us to teach the young as if their families still routinely attend Sunday Benediction. Someone should inform the front offic

Mother Katharine Drexel founded schools nationwide, including Xavier University, and a religious order to serve people of color.

Perhaps it’s my 25 years as a teacher, but for me Dec. 31 rarely prompts much soul searching or melancholy musing on the passage of time. No, for me time’s movement becomes especially vivid and poignant in June. The school year ends and a teacher is left in a state of almost bipolar ambi

At one point in his acceptance speech before the Democratic National Convention last month, Vice President Gore worked himself up into a rhetorical outcry: The last thing this country needs is a Supreme Court that overturns Roe v. Wade. That was actually a scare tactic. On June 28 of this year, the

What do you do when you can’t afford an out-of-town summer vacation? If you are a New Yorker living in Manhattan or one of the surrounding boroughs, you might spend an afternoon or a day at Coney Islandnamed by Dutch settlers after the word for rabbit, konijn, which abounded there in the 1600&

Historian’s PerspectiveIn reference to the article by John W. O’Malley, S.J., on the beatification of Pope Pius IX (8/26), I am moved to ask, Was it not this pope whose body the Roman citizens attempted to throw into the Tiber during his funeral procession?I think the real question Catho

Upon hearing that Al Gore had chosen Joseph Lieberman to be his running mate, a friend remarked: Very interesting. He’s religious. He’s for school vouchers. He’s against partial-birth abortion. Pause for effect. I guess the bishops have their man!As the would-be No. 2 put it, only

Unless you’ve been stranded on a desert island for the last few weeks, you know that the lucky winner of the CBS series Survivor was revealed during its Aug. 23 episode. America’s newest millionaire is the now-famous Richard Hatch, a Machiavellian corporate trainer, of whom we will undou