Category: Media
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Sed Contra: The U.S. Catholic Conference Strikes Again
Deal W. Hudson December 1, 2000 Catholics must wonder sometimes why the U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC) exists. On October 16, Catholic News Service (CNS) of the USCC issued a story with the headline, “Gore sees hope for ‘common ground’ movement on abortion.” Written by Patricia Zapor, based on an interview with the vice president, the…
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Sed Contra: What’s All the Fuss?
Deal W. Hudson November 1, 2000 On the heels of Cardinal Ratzinger’s letter to bishops, Dominus Iesus (Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church), comes the predictable chorus of boos. Once again, the papacy of John Paul II is accused of destroying post-Vatican II progress toward genuine interreligious dialogue by affirming the…
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Sed Contra: Reading Madeline St. John
Deal W. Hudson September 1, 2000 Crisis readers, I am sure, will want to know about the recent publication by Carroll & Graf of three novels by Madeleine St John (pronounced “sin-gin”), an Anglican and a Londoner, of Australian birth. St John’s work deserves to be widely read by Catholics who are in the habit…
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Sed Contra: Mortimer J. Adler, Catholic
Deal W. Hudson July 1, 2000 The most influential American philosopher of the 20th century was received into the Church this past December. Those familiar with the trajectory of Mortimer Adler’s work, not just the Great Books Program, should not be surprised. Born December 28, 1902, Mortimer has been a Catholic philosopher all his long…
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Sed Contra: Late-Night Humor That Hurts
Deal W. Hudson April 1, 2000 With the departure of Johnny Carson, I lost my late-night viewing habit. Like his predecessor, Jack Parr, Carson could entertain a broad audience while maintaining a reasonable standard of taste and decorum. When we laughed at Carson’s jokes, we laughed not just at others but at ourselves, as well…
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Sed Contra: Catholic Journalism As If Beauty Really Mattered
Deal W. Hudson March 1, 2000 Readers may have noticed that I added an explanatory note to the review section. I have been asked if this is a “disclaimer,” meant to disassociate myself from our reviewers’ opinions. That was certainly not my intent. I deemed the note necessary by the letters I have received from…
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Sed Contra: Catholics and the GOP
Deal W. Hudson February 1, 2000 Catholics make up the largest religious denomination in this country-65 million. They are also one-third of the electorate in a presidential election, some 30 million. Yet in more than 200 years, a Catholic priest has never served as chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives. In December, an 18-member…
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Sed Contra: Poisonous Charm
Deal W. Hudson January 1, 2000 Fr. Andrew Greeley has been quite busy lately. In the October 30 issue of America, he spent a full page lambasting the Crisis Catholic Voter Report, saying it “would probably earn a failing grade in most graduate seminars on survey research.” Then on the November 29 Early Show, he…
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Sed Contra: A Slap in the Face
Deal W. Hudson January 1, 2001 The postelection saga rents the veil of the media temple. It revealed something we have always known: They’re not on our side! What was different this time was not merely ideological bias but tonal or, to put it another way, emotional bias. When Matt Lauer on The Today Show…
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The Heard Word
Deal W. Hudson February 1, 2001 Homer, the first great poet of the West, wasn’t a writer but a performer, with the dining halls of ancient Greece as his stage. Before the advent of written literature, the medium of poetry was dramatic utterance and song. Eyes were no more necessary to the enjoyment of words…
Deal W. Hudson 