December 14th Comments (142) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Well, after what I wrote yesterday, I couldn’t very well ignore today’s feast, could I? If my class has a patron saint, I suppose …

December 13th Comments (5) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Inexcusably, I forgot to quote Dryden’s famous ode about St. Cecilia on her feast day (and he was a convert to Catholicism!). Today, I won’t be so remiss. Here’s one from a convert in the other direction.

December 5th Comments (203) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

This one should be easier than John Lennon’s line from “Julia”….

November 22nd Comments (114) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Taking advantage of the coincidence…

November 14th Comments (192) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

I wound up looking at two editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica last week, and the differences between them were quite striking, in terms of the changing view of Elizabeth’s reign predicted by Belloc…

November 5th Comments (221) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Guy Fawkes Day, November 5, 2007
Rome, Italy

The coincidence is just too much to resist….

September 20th Comments (690) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

A Vietnamese priest friend was recently in his home town to attend his father’s funeral. The Church in Vietnam, of course, is

September 3rd Comments (347) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

“My Lord and my God,” said the formerly-doubting St. Thomas in the scene portrayed by Caravaggio below (The Incredulity of St. Thomas, 1601-02). If they are not true, the words of St. Thomas are blasphemy pure and simple Рa breathtaking declaration that no sane person or pious Jew would ever have tolerated. And any [...]

June 12th Comments (414) / RSS Post Filed under Life of Jesus Christ

Here in Rome, we get to celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi twice: the Vatican celebrates it on Thursday, and the City of Rome celebrates it on Sunday. So on Thursday evening, I was able to attend the Eucharistic Procession from the Basilica of St. John Lateran to the Basilica of Mary Major. It was [...]

May 9th Comments (501) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

As the Holy Father arrives in Brazil, on the eve of a major meeting of the bishops of Latin America, there is plenty of talk about lingering liberation theology and the growth of Protestant sects…

April 9th Comments (681) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Yesterday‚Äôs long Sunday Times Magazine story on Benedict XVI (‚ÄúKeeping the Faith‚Äù ‚Äì not exactly a triumph of imagination, as titles go) is not bad, but…

March 17th Comments (114) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

A tragic story out of England today about a young woman who killed herself after becoming obsessed with the Da Vinci Code. The suicide took place…

January 26th Comments (696) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Remember The Da Vinci Code?
Not that anyone should feel obliged….
But I couldn‚Äôt help thinking about Dan Brown and his novel when…

December 23rd Comments (536) / RSS Post Filed under The Da Vinci Code

Since this blog is, in theory, dedicated to The Da Vinci Code and Opus Dei, I figured that a painting with a quasi-secret religious message and some curiously beautiful “mistakes” might make a nice Christmas card. So I settled on this painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525-1569 Brussels). I know it looks like [...]