Banging on the doors of fortress Europe
Migrant crisis leads one to wonder: how many are real refugees, how many are queue-jumpers? The day after our friend George was elected MP, I walked to his house with a bottle of champagne. It wasn’t...
View ArticleVocations are blooming in Edinburgh
It’s late August, and the wild roses have blown over. In July they grew profusely, and every time I passed them on the way to the supermarket I stopped to smell them. Although its delicious scent is...
View ArticleThere is no shame of the faith that is in you
Before I started theology school, I thought I would be trained in apologetics, which I saw as the art of arguing one’s own beliefs so well that others are converted to them. However, when classes began...
View ArticleThe uniqueness of the marriage bond
“Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings,” wrote the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “It was established by the Creator with its own nature, essential properties and...
View ArticleCatholicism is what it is and not what we want it to be
In the 1970s there was a marked contrast between the Catholic faith as it was taught in my elementary school and as it was taught in the church around the corner. At school, it wasn’t taught as much as...
View ArticlePreserving the beautiful stream
Distressing news chez the McLeans: someone has dumped or leaked raw sewage into our stream. For over 200 years the stream has been trickling musically through the woods, falling silent under the ground...
View ArticleWith joy, and some envy, I watched a friend enter the beautiful life
One day my Warsaw friend suddenly took it into her head to fly to England and enter the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Cecilia at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. I found out after the fact and was cross that...
View ArticleProfessional Catholics must be professional and Catholic
According to the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, Catholic Register columnist Michael Coren was received into the Anglican Communion on April 19. Despite Coren’s fame as an apologist for the Roman Catholic...
View ArticleSpring points us to the Resurrection
I live on 86 of the last few hundred acres of countryside separating Edinburgh from the next town over. My home is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, so it is safe from field-munching...
View ArticleCardinal O’Brien the author of his own misfortune
Edinburgh’s disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien was in the news again last week after he resigned his rights and privileges as a cardinal. The Vatican stated that “with this provision” Pope Francis “would...
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