Cardinal Christoph Schonborn came to Benedictine College yesterday and gave two masterful addresses (a homily which Jack Smith addresses here and a lecture). The Archbishop of Vienna and President of the Austrian Bishops’ conference is too deep a thinker to do justice to in a blog post. But he did say some startling things. So herewith, I attempt only to give you my personal top five revelations from his lecture.

1. The Student’s Oops. Ten days before his fateful Regensburg address on Sept. 12, 2006, a former student loaned Pope Benedict XVI an ancient dialogue about Islam ...

Remember that line that was taken out of context and used to fuel riots in the Muslim world? The one from...READ MORE

I thought it might be fun to look at some lines of the State of the Union and imagine what they might sound like from someone else’s perspective ….

1. From a Massachusetts voter perspective ... he might seem a little disingenuous.

“For these Americans and so many others, change has not come fast enough. Some are frustrated; some are angry.”

Ummm .. the frustration and anger in Massachusetts (of all places) seemed to do with overreaching, not under-reaching, didn’t it? …

2. From an alien from outer space perspective … someone who heard this speech without knowing anything about America might be startled at the irony of Obama citing two problems.

In the early part of the...READ MORE

I had a fascinating discussions with two Vatican experts about papal security for an article in Our Sunday Visitor.

The two had surprising things to say about Nazis and the Popes, but since that was off-topic for that story, John Norton at OSV has graciously allowed me to share their words with readers here.

David Alvarez is author of Spies in the Vatican: Espionage & Intrigue from Napoleon to the Holocaust (University Press of Kansas 2002). He’s a professor at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif. I asked him whether the Pope was considered a threat to the Nazis.

What kind of tabs were the Nazis keeping on the Pope?

“The Nazis considered the Catholic Church in general and the...READ MORE

Like many pro-lifers, I spent the weekend after the March for Life (make that marches for life) eagerly lapping up articles about the historic win in Massachusetts.

As writer after writer explained how this spelled the end of Obama’s dominance, it reminded me of the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statues in Baghdad after the U.S. invasion … and then of the “Mission Accomplished” sign displayed on the U.S. aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf that proved embarrassing for President Bush.

Conservatives are reveling in Scott Brown’s win over Martha Coakley in the race to replace the late Ted Kennedy in the Senate. But Catholics who for pro-life reasons are also reveling in the win need...READ MORE

Here’s a National Catholic Register editorial that has run in the past to mark today’s Roe v. Wade anniversary ... find it on the home page under “Hot Topics.”

America, we won’t go away. Many people wish we would, and heaven knows we would rather be doing almost anything else. But we can’t go away, and we won’t.

I’m sure you’ve seen us. We may have made you angry, or sad, or we may have made you turn quickly away and find something else to look at.

You may have seen us two days before Christmas outside the Planned Parenthood building. The old man with the rosary, the college kids in sweats, the sad-looking woman clutching brochures and an “I Regret My Abortion” sign —...READ MORE

Today, on the year anniversary of Obama’s inaugural address, let’s imagine his Inaugural words coming from the mouths of Massachusetts voters.

Might they be saying to Obama: “On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. Republicans, heaven knows, have proven definitively that they are not our saviors, and the Senate victory in Massachusetts is rich in dramatic irony but in the grand scheme of things a small thing.

But think of it from Catholics’ point of view: The President promised a conscience clause for doctors to...READ MORE

Television’s “late night wars” are a big, too big, topic of conversation nowadays, and there are two questions I’d like to ask.

1. Why should anybody care? and

2. Come on. Admit it. Did anyone expect Conan O’Brien to be a good fit for the Tonight Show?

Do the two questions seem contradictory? They’re not.

First, the background: “The Tonight Show” went to Conan O’Brien, by contractural arrangement, seven months ago. NBC moved Leno to an earlier time slot with a random variety show that apparently didn’t do so well. O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” didn’t do so well either. Now NBC wants Leno back in the time slot he started at, and after trying to find a weasel way to do...READ MORE

“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt on CNBC

He’s right, right? Or should Catholics join everyone else who says “Gasp! The horror!”

Don’t get me wrong: I do not feel that anyone has a right to store, review or publish anyone else’s Internet history, nor should they. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is: Isn’t it true that we shouldn’t be looking at stuff online that we don’t want anyone to know about?

During the 1987 debate over the nomination of Robert Bork, writer Michael Dolan got a copy of Judge Bork’s video rentals and published it in the...READ MORE