Catholicism

  • Blair’s Playing for the Home Team Now

    Blair, a Regular at Mass, Is Now Catholic. Welcome. (Bonus: story written by John F. Burns, the greatest war reporter of our time who seems to have made the switch to the Metro desk in London).

  • John O’Brien gets Lambert Tree Award

    My friend John O’Brien got the Lambert Tree Award yesterday. It is the highest award for bravery that the City gives to firefighters each year. Thank you, John. More here.

  • 1970s Catholicism

    scan0001, originally uploaded by Okram. Here’s me on my First Communion day at Annunciation Church in Pittsburgh. Post-Vatican II happiness and love. Fr. Rege Ryan Sr. Collette, on whom I had a crush. Felt banners and face-to-face confession. No rulers on knuckles, just nuns with guitars singing "Day By Day". I was very lucky.

  • 7th Grade CCD Project: A Catholic Framework for Economic Life

    This Spring I was the substitute teacher for a 7th grade CCD class. 7th grade is a tough class to teach or to be a student in, since the kids generally have a bored-with-it-all mien and there’s no sacrament to focus on, like First Communion or confirmation. So instead of teaching from the book, and…

  • Remembering the Sarajevan Cellist

    So the other day someone wrote to me through my John F. Burns website and requested “the 1992 article on vedran smailovic – the cellist of Sarajevo”. Back in the olden days, before Times Select, before all you needed was a home delivery subscription to the Times to have complete access to their archive going…