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Robert Louis Stevenson’s wonderful verses often capture more than meets the eye. When I was down beside the seaA wooden spade they gave to me.To dig the sandy shore.A Child’s Garden of Verses They – whoever ‘they’ were – clearly did this child a good turn. They brought him to a good place, and they gave him a good ‘toy’–if we call it a toy. The best ‘play’ is a kind of first exercise in the deeper things of life: such as playing house, playing workman, or playing army. Or simply digging in the earth. Children have a kind of natural fascination with many things, some of them good, some of them not. How they play, what they play and with whom they play will either grow or diminish these fascinations. Current customs, particularly because of the technologies involved, can turn play into somet...

Irmo, SOUTH CAROLINA — “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” So said more than 350 technology executives, researchers and academics in a signed statement that warned of the existential threats of Artificial Intelligence.  That statement was published in May 2023, and, hot on its heels, came another warning, this time from Twitter boss Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple. Their joint letter called for a six-month moratorium on the development of advanced AI systems because of the risks still to be determined around AI — though Musk just announced his new AI company, xAI.  At the same time, in the U.S., the Biden administration has begun talking of the need to “m...

What do you expect to happen as a result of reading and hearing God’s Word? Do you expect to encounter something that will change you? The response of most people is pretty tepid and uninspired. Most don’t really expect much nor have they ever. For them, reading or hearing God’s Word is more of a tedious ritual than a transformative reality. The readings for this Sunday clearly set forth that God’s Word can transform, renew, encourage, and empower us. We ought to begin to begin to expect great things from the faithful and attentive reception of the Word of God. However, Jesus also spells out some obstacles that keep the harvest small or even nonexistent for some. Let’s look at what the Lord teaches in three steps. I. Promise – The first reading shows that the Word of God can utterly transf...

Pray that God sends us another Aquinas for our day. July 18 is a special day this year for Dominicans: it marks the 700th anniversary of the canonization of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) is arguably the most important saint in the Order of Preachers after its founder, St. Dominic.  He’s certainly had a great impact on the Church at large. Popes have repeatedly recommended philosophy and theology be taught according to the insights of the “Angelic Doctor” (though that recommendation in recent decades has more often been honored in the breach than in principle).  He came into the world into a privileged family in the south of Italy. Their plans were for Thomas to become a Benedictine and an abbot. God’s plans were otherwise. This was the era of the rise of t...

Does the Holy See’s stand-down in the Shanghai standoff signal surrender in the Sino-Vatican relationship? An unusual interview arranged by the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, suggests as much.  On Saturday, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Joseph Shen Bin to the Diocese of Shanghai, the most important diocese in mainland China. Bishop Shen Bin now occupies the cathedra where Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-Me was once enthroned. Cardinal Kung (1901-2000), appointed bishop of Shanghai in 1950, was imprisoned by the communist Chinese in 1955 and incarcerated for 30 years before being released into exile. Pope St. John Paul II named Kung a cardinal in pectore (secretly) in his first consistory for new cardinals in 1979, only revealing he did so in 1991. Bishop Shen Bin takes a coll...

You have probably heard by now that a statement made by Bishop Américo Aguiar has caused quite a stir. Aguiar is the auxiliary bishop of Lisbon, Portugal, and he is the chief coordinator of the upcoming World Youth Day. Moreover, he was, in a very surprising move, just named a cardinal by Pope Francis. So he is a man of considerable weight—which is one reason why his remarks have gotten so much attention. He commented, in reference to the international gathering over which he is presiding, “We want it to be normal for a young Catholic Christian to say and bear witness to who he is or for a young Muslim, Jew, or of another religion to also have no problem saying who he is and bearing witness to it, and for a young person who has no religion to feel welcome and to perhaps not feel strange fo...

Conservatives often receive a bad rap as negative reactionaries who continually complain about the state of society and the Church. Conservation, however, flows from our original mission to till and protect the Garden, implying that God entrusted a good to us that must be preserved and cultivated within the limits of his original work. Conservatives reject the myth of progress that “new” necessarily means “better,” even if it might be on occasion, and recognize the necessity of tradition. The need to conserve implies the possession of a good worth cherishing, protecting, and passing on. Perhaps this points to the key difference between a conservative and a progressive, with one recognizing the good as already possessed and the other seeking a future good not yet possessed.   The ...

I never really liked the parable Jesus tells in the Gospel for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. But one benefit of preparing my Extraordinary Story podcast on the Life of Christ is that it forces me to spend time with parts of the Gospel I have tended to skim through. My appreciation for this Sunday’s Gospel grew by leaps and bounds after the Parable of the Sower episode, and looking back I see how the parable is a linchpin in Jesus’s life, teaching and saving action. Jesus tells the parable at a pivotal time, when his ministry is about to hit some significant milestones. The place he is assumed to have told this story, Sower’s Cove on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, is like a natural amphitheater, a hillside by the sea. I’ve never been there, but I can imagine how “such larg...

Our latest comic, Lily of the Mohawks: Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, is currently available for pre-order and will begin shipping in August 2023. Below you can preview the first three pages. Lily of the Mohawks: Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Written by PHILIP KOSLOSKIArt by BRUNO ABDIASColors by CHUCK MICHAEL OBACH Caught between two worlds, Kateri Tekakwitha wants to live out her newfound Christian faith with every ounce of her being. However, she is also under intense pressure from her Mohawk tribe to remain steadfast in the beliefs and traditions of their community. What will she do? Will she abandon her Christian faith? Or will she find a way to live in both worlds as a faithful Native American Christian? Discover her radical choice in this exciting historical graphic nov...

In 2011, storyboard artist Emma Coats, who had worked on hugely successful films including Up and Brave, tweeted out a list of what she called “Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling.” Everybody in filmmaking pored over what was, in succinct fashion, the inside stuff that produced the wonders of Toy Story I-IV, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and the other 20 films that have made Pixar’s brand the most successful in cinema history.  The rules were a bit of a victory lap for the company whose library of films have consistently been brilliant in story and character, beautiful in visual landscapes, and hugely lucrative, with each project sending billions of dollars back to the Emeryville headquarters just east of San Francisco. Until now. Pixar’s most recent offering, Elemental, ...

In an era in which America is becoming an increasingly anti-Catholic place to live, Catholics desperately need to be supported by a strong Catholic community in order to live out their faith. For some, the community in which they were born supplies that need. However, for many others there exists a desire to find a community where orthodox Catholicism is supported and lived out. To help those who are looking for such communities, Crisis Magazine has compiled a list of 10 of the best cities to raise a Catholic family (plus an additional unique situation).  A few notes about this list. It is not a scientific study; the cities selected obviously don’t include every city with a strong Catholic community. However, these cities stand out in terms of offering distinct advantages for Catholic...

The rise of Bishop Américo Aguiar Skip to content In an unusual move, Pope Francis on Sunday named a young auxiliary bishop of the Patriarchate of Lisbon to the College of Cardinals.  The patriarch — Lisbon’s archbishop — is usually made a cardinal, both by tradition and according to Clement XII’s 1737 bull, Inter praecipuas apostolici ministerii, which stipulates that he should be elevated in the first consistory after his nomination. But elevating an auxiliary to the rank of cardinal is rare even by Francis’ standards, and is unprecedented in Lisbon. Bishop Américo Aguiar, cardinal-elect and coordinator of World Youth Day Lisbon. Courtesy photo. Share So who is Bishop Américo Aguiar, the Lisbon auxiliary bishop named cardinal? What does his red hat mean for his future, and for the r...