I’ve enjoyed sculpting in sand since I was a kid, and for the past 14 years my favorite subject, by far, has been the crucifixion of Jesus. (I blogged about this once before, in 2014.) I love sculpting the crucifixion for many reasons. Just...

A reader of my review of Mary Magdalene offers an impassioned defense for the medieval Western view of St. Mary Magdalene as a penitent with a notoriously wanton sexual past, a profligate adulteress or harlot: Mary Magdalene is the sole woman...

“Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (Read the complete readings) “Go and do likewise.” Not “Go and think...

See also: It’s Complicated: Islam and violence | The problem of evil | The rock God can’t lift |

Yesterday Suzanne and I went to a funeral. Friends of ours buried their father, and among his children was a priest who celebrated the beautiful funeral Mass. To bury the dead is one of the seven corporal works of mercy, and to bury one’s...

In the comments for my long-form article The Secular Apocalypse: Irreligion, Pop Culture and the End of the World, a reader going by Hunter asks: What do you think of The Lord of the Rings’ approach (not The Silmarillion but the trilogy) to God...

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Last week there was celebration among pro-life Alabamians as Gov. Kay Ivey signed one of the nation’s strongest bans on abortion. Similar measures advanced in other states, including Missouri and Tennessee. On Thursday...

When you lose someone close to you, especially unexpectedly, often you find yourself thinking about the last thing you said to them or the last thing they said to you. I was thinking about that this week reading about that heroic college student...

Charismatic or fascinating serial killers are a well-established type in Hollywood mythology, Hannibal Lecter in his many incarnations being only the most celebrated. Lecter, of course, is fiction, but Ted Bundy was as close to the reality...

See also: My Road to Rome, Part 1 My journey from Protestantism to Catholicism began, in part, with doubts about the Protestant case for the canon of scripture. (Yikes, my first post in this series was over a year ago! God willing, Part 3 will...