Let us be clear, what Vladimir Putin has declared isn’t a just war, it’s just war. All the more reason, therefore, for the one person uniquely positioned to be a lever for peace, and leaven of justice, to act. That person is Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, and his silence to date is a scandal. The role of the patriarch in … More The Scandalous Silence of Moscow’s Patriarch
By most accounts, President Biden’s 1/19 press conference was a debacle, giving even stalwart media chums pause, and allies cause for further alarm. For yet others, there may be a temptation to relish this, as well as the epic disappointment that is the administration’s foreign policy to date. It’s a temptation worth resisting. Attention has … More PUTIN: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING WOULD RATHER BE GOD
There are times, even in polite company, when a believer can feel like the last duck left in hunting season, flapping past the blind in a bulls-eye patterned sweater. In such circumstances, I will occasionally describe myself as a liturgical agnostic. Despite the apparent cheek, it’s not a joke. The phrase means something important to me … More DOUBT AND THE CREED
I WAS IN NEW YORK THAT DAY – watched the Towers from my apartment. I could go on, but given where these 14 years have led me, I’d like to say something about what happened a few days later. 9/11/2001 was a Tuesday, and by week’s end I was in Montreal, traveling there by train. … More Balm in Canada-9/11
It is the greatest story ever told. And you are there – not as a spectator, but a player at its very heart. Good Friday. An occasion in the Western Catholic Church when the Passion according to St John is proclaimed interactively. As a congregant, you’re cast in multiple roles – including member of the crowd, … More GIVE ME BARABBAS!
It is a rare person who hasn’t experienced the mystic bond between memory and the senses. How, for example, a certain smell can, like a time machine, transport us instantly to a place, and moment, in our past. Five senses are what we’re meant to have. New York, as it happens, is a city of five … More Memories of a Staten Island Childhood
Years ago, my mother and father, brother and I spent our summer vacations at the Downingtown Motor Inn in Pennsylvania. To me it was Shangri-la; a place of enchantment and matrix to many happy memories. One night, the hotel held a Jeopardy-type contest for kids that I wound up winning. From the several prizes available, … More LUNCH WITH MR. SORENSEN
Joni Mitchell is a wonder of the world. In my reckoning anyway. And not because I found a home in Canada. She long ago decamped to a canyon in California, apparently without looking back. In any event, a song of hers, “Woodstock,” got me thinking recently. In its most quoted stanza, she distills stark mystery … More A Divided Society Is Already Conquered
On October 2, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi national, and Washington Post contributor, walked into his country’s consulate in Istanbul. He was never seen again. Mr Khashoggi was executed, brutally and swiftly it seems. We can’t be sure, of course, because what happened took place in secret, deep within the precincts of a fortified … More Jamal Khashoggi and Vincent Lambert Were Executed
GRIEF Grief hollows excavates with sparking picks and groans of spent marl turned tear-made mud heaped heavy on blistering spades – 3/24/19
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