When the murderers of Archbishop Thomas Becket sliced off the top of his head and scattered his brains on the pavement stones of Canterbury Cathedral they could hardly have imagined the fascination their victim's life would attract for centuries to come.

In the years following World War II and continuing after the Second Vatican Council, to be an American Catholic novelist often meant to be lapsed.

I first discovered Mario Vargas Llosa in 1990 when I was in Peru to see a friend climb Machu Picchu and write an article That was the time when Vargas Llosa the novelist was running for president of Peru The guerilla movement Shining Path was terrorizing the countryside and the economy was fal

Michael Novak’s autobiography is another remarkable American success story.

Rarely has a film haunted me as much as Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's French language film, "The Past." It is a story about dysfunctional families and their miscommunications, secrets and lies.

And I say to my people’s masters, Beware/ Beware of the thing that is coming, beware of the risen people/ Who shall take what ye would not give.