Story time. Earlier this year I put out a prayer request for a thing that was purely for fun. Because I like to have fun. That was the sole stated reason. Any side benefits could be had some other way. Why pretend at nobler motivations? Fact check: Prayer answered. Double fact check: Prayer over-answered. After I got home from doing the fun thing I had in mind, my child called me up and invited me to join her on a work... Read more
[No Spoilers] Last night I watched Wake Up Dead Man, the latest in the Knives Out series. Two of the leading characters are Catholic priests, and the murder takes place in their parish. Furthermore, the plot is 100% centered around questions of faith — it’s not a generic mystery with Catholic-flavor settings, it’s a mystery that is built around Catholicism. So viewers should reasonably wonder: How well did the film do on its portrayal of the Catholic faith? UPDATE: Here’s a... Read more
As a young adult, my sister was stalked by a serial rapist. Her husband worked nights, and her stalker figured out her husband’s work schedule and broke in through their bedroom window in the middle of the night when he knew she would be alone. What saved her was the only tool that actually works, every time, in such a scenario: She just happened to be someplace else. A cellphone, had they been invented back then, would not have helped.... Read more
At The Atlantic, “American Summers are Starting to Feel Like Winter” reports with alarm and befuddlement on the summer variant of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Understandable, if you are new to the thing. I am not new to the thing. I am, however, grateful it is finally getting on the public health radar, because summer-depression is just as disabling as the winter version, and needs to be treated just as aggressively. What follows isn’t medical advice, just some common sense ways... Read more
This week’s topic is brought to us by the archbishop of Toulouse, France, who has just promoted a convicted rapist to archdiocesan chancellor. One of the best things I ever did was follow a bunch of normal-person priests on social media, so that when bishops pull despicable stunts like this, I can immediately see the horrified reactions from decent guys who love Jesus and just want to serve their parishes. It’s consoling. I want to look at this topic in... Read more
This week it struck me just how deeply offensive is the term “Medical Aid in Dying” (MAiD) as a euphemism for assisted suicide. Thursday evening I sat with my husband’s grandmother, praying silently beside her as she lay sleeping, her face beautiful as ever in the golden evening sunlight in her wood-paneled den. She would die a few hours later. It would happen at home, cared for by her family, just as she had wanted. She died about six months... Read more
I have a playlist called “Medical Gaslighting” that is for unwinding after particularly stupid doctors’ appointments. In 2021 when my brain went mostly-AWOL for a few months, we didn’t even bother going to the doctor — the spouse and I went straight to planning for end-of-life. Why would we do this? Because we had long experience that going to the doctor was unlikely to help, and I already had the list of things that had been useful in the past,... Read more
The new bishop of Charlotte (NC) is under fire from, well, everybody for his recent attempt to micromanage a bazillion legitimate options for the Catholic liturgy. Some of the proposed mandates are just bizarre, such as banning the ringing bells at the start of Mass. Others are downright discriminatory: Prohibiting “quiet” or “low” Masses makes it painfully difficult for those with sensory sensitivities* to attend and pray. Forbidding clergy from wearing clerical garb that doesn’t meet the bishop’s personal taste... Read more
Regardless of whether a loved one dies early and unexpectedly or passes away after a long life and with considerable forewarning, we the bereaved are often left with unfinished relationship threads. Some of the most common longings are: “I never got to say . . .” “I never apologized . . .” “I wish my loved one had understood . . . “ “I wish my loved one could see this now . . .” Of course I think the... Read more
I was thrilled to see that Pope Leo XIV is indeed a Rerum Novarum guy, which I’ll explain in a sec but first here are his own words, from his May 10th address to the College of Cardinals: . . . I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In... Read more
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