Book review: “Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling” by Ross King
It’s a daunting task to write the story of the creation of a work of art and, even more, for one that comprises a multiplicity of art works. After all, [...]
Book review: “Northern Armageddon: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the Making of the American Revolution” by D. Peter MacLeod
Most accounts of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also called the Battle of Quebec — a turning point in the history of North America, when Canada became [...]
Book review: “Quebec: Historic Seaport” by Mazo de la Roche
I was flabbergasted by Quebec: Historic Seaport, ostensibly a history of the Canadian city, published in 1944 by novelist Mazo de la Roche. And my flabbergastation only grew greater [...]
Essay: “God is the ocean in which we all swim
Patrick T. Reardon 9.4.18
Essay: Pope Francis teaches how to love those we see as sinners
The death penalty is wrong in all cases. That’s what Pope Francis proclaimed in early August, and that’s what the Church’s Catechism will be revised to say. It’s an [...]
Chicago History: Haki Madhubuti, the most influential African-American leader you’ve probably never heard of
This is an expanded version of an article that appeared 8.29.18 in the Chicago Reader. Don L. Lee was ten years old when his mother Maxine took him and [...]
Book review: “Bone on Bone” by Julia Keller
Julia Keller’s latest novel Bone on Bone is a story of misery and love. It is the story of people whose lives are full of misery. Sometimes, for them, [...]
Essay: The death penalty and the evolution of faith
The Church’s understanding of what it means to live a Christian life has been evolving for 2,000 years and will continue to do so. For instance, the early [...]
Book review: “Wyrd Sisters” by Terry Pratchett
That great and silly American writer Christopher Moore, in recent years, has mined the Shakespeare canon for sources for his comic novels. You could call this thievery. Or you [...]
Book review: “Building A Revolutionary State: The Legal Transformation of New York, 1776-1783” by Howard Pashman
For Great Britain, the late 18th-century conflict with its North American colonies was a civil war. The colonists were in rebellion and needed to be policed. For [...]