Category: Culture
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On Condoms – More Dostoevsky, Less Catechesis
Deal W. Hudson November 29, 2010 Catholics are obsessed with rules about what can and cannot be done. Contraception, abortion, women in the priesthood, even kneeling for the Eucharist are often subjects of controversy whenever Catholics discuss their faith. Thus, when Pope Benedict XVI made his now-famous comment in Light of the World about condoms, it was inevitable that…
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Bill Donohue Is Accused of Starting the Fight over Christmas
Deal W. Hudson December 20, 2010 I was putting together my list of “ten most laughable public attacks of 2010” when I received an e-mail newsletter from Chris Korzen and the team at Catholics United. Korzen’s letter – an attack on Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York – was…
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Sacred Music for Christmas
Deal W. Hudson December 5, 2014 At Christmas, music abounds. There is no other sacred day or holiday, so deeply intertwined with music. If you are considering stretching your musical palette this Christmas, here is a list to choose from. You may already know many of these pieces but you may not know the particular…
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Art Worth Dying For?
Deal W. Hudson December 6, 2014 A Review of “The Monument Men” (2013) Starring George Clooney, “The Monuments Men,” chronicled the efforts of 345 men and women from 13 nations who volunteered to recover works of arts stolen by the Nazis. Created in 1943 by an act of Congress and the support of President Roosevelt, this…
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Soundtrack Suggestions for Christmas
Deal W. Hudson December 7, 2014 “King of Kings” soundtrack by Miklos Rozsa. It’s not too far-fetched to say that film music has become our “classical music.” Far, far more listeners have heard full orchestras blaring in movie theaters than in concert halls for the past fifty years. This tradition of symphonic music which was…
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Stories We Hear Again and Again
Deal W. Hudson December 7, 2014 We welcome the retelling of traditional stories because we are always seeking both to understand and endure the stories we inhabit and ultimately the narrative which is our entire life. Why else would both the main characters in Casablanca, played by Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart, ask for the same…
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Spiritual Renewal Through Beauty
Deal W. Hudson December 7, 2014 Catholics need to be more welcoming to each other and to parish visitors. It’s not the first time I have made that observation, and it’s not the first time much of the response has been negative. Why? I’m accused of forcing evangelical habits on a Catholic parish, of endorsing…
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When Catholics Lost Their Cultural Clout
Deal W. Hudson December 10, 2014 Catholics of my generation probably remember only dimly the furor provoked among Catholics by films in the 1950s directed by Luis Bunuel, Los Olivados (1950); Roberto Rossellini, The Miracle (1951); Otto Preminger, The Moon is Blue (1953); Elia Kazan, Baby Doll (1956); Roger Vadim, And God Created Woman (1956);…
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Evangelizing Through the Culture — A Manifesto
Deal W. Hudson December 10, 2014 How to describe something that is all around you, influencing you during every waking hour, perhaps while sleeping as well. Culture is like that, like the air you breathe but completely unaware, unless you are choking. That’s precisely why I am raising the issue of culture directly, because to…
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The Need for Cultural Conservatism
Deal W. Hudson December 10, 2014 At the annual Paul Weyrich Awards Dinner in 2014, Foster Friess, a well-known philanthropist, and leader among conservatives made a simple suggestion: social conservatives should become, and refer to themselves as, cultural conservatives. When I heard him say it, I thought to myself, “Friess is exactly right!” Then wondered,…
Deal W. Hudson 