Going over the biographical essay in the draft for my book, adapting and expanding upon the work I did in the dissertation. I see that the question of the local church - the local church and the regional church - needed more attention than it received at Vatican II, according to Sullivan. Certainly a problem in the Catholic Church is excessive ( Read more... )

Carlo Maria Cardinal Martini, S.J., Emeritus Archbishop of Milan - one of the truly notable successors of the mighty Ambrose of Milan - died yesterday, I just read. It's one of those pieces of bad news I've expected for some time. I was familiar with Martini from my the time of my Master's studies, where it became obvious that he was the great ( Read more... )

He keeps going, and going, and going.... I see that my revered dissertation subject, Francis A. Sullivan, S.J., kicks off this year's first issue of Theological Studies with an article entitled "The Development of the Doctrine about Infants Who Die Unbaptized." Not bad for a scholar soon to turn 89. I suspect that this is a spin-off of the ( Read more... )

It's good to feel useful! Along with the newspaper article I mentioned earlier using my research on Dalí, in the last week I've also had requests for more on my Dalí research from a high school Theology teacher in Pittsburgh (occupying Langers' old position, I think) and by a dissertating Franciscan friar in Poland who was interested in my ( Read more... )

It's an interesting, quiet night as I re-read parts of my dissertation in preparation for my defense tomorrow afternoon. Earlier in the week, I felt more of the anxious, acid-in-the-stomach, pre-race kind of jitters that I remember from more athletic days. Now, as the night goes on, I'm just feeling more and more relaxed: like I might as well ( Read more... )

It has truly become a much smaller world when we are able to mark the passing of a language and a culture in this way ( Read more... )

Late night Milwaukee: it's quiet. The snow has stopped falling after a constant 18 hours or more, leaving only a few inches on the ground, it was so fine or so mild out. The miniature plow/tractors are clearing the Marquette campus sidewalks for tomorrow's business. The wind is still blowing, causing small drifts here and there, but the night is ( Read more... )

One piece of wisdom that I have come to appreciate more and more through the years has been a point C.S. Lewis made toward the end of the first book of his Mere Christianity. In this passage, he was dealing with one of the major hurdles to Christian belief in the 20th century. This was the generally held idea by a number of people that ( Read more... )

I made a discovery last night while working on the dissertation over at Starbucks. In the history of discoveries, it's not much - it's virtually nothing, but nevertheless it was still kind of exciting for me. Working on a text from the Second Vatican Council dealing with a particular idea of a charism (a spiritual gift from God), I was lead back ( Read more... )

Erik dropped me off at the train station a little while back and I am now in Logan Airport, stuck. My 8pm flight to Milwaukee is now apparently leaving at 9:45pm because of a mechanical problem. There is another flight out to Milwaukee on Midwest at 10-something, so I feel confident that, even if my flight turns into the repeatedly-delayed-until ( Read more... )