Author Archives | Russell Shaw

Russell Shaw - who has written 213 posts on Catholic Exchange.


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The National Mood

Posted on 29 January 2010

As Americans wait, hopefully or apprehensively as the case may be, to see what happens next to the Obama legislative agenda, a question unavoidably suggests itself: how on earth did we get into this mess? A mess that evidently transcends…

Soothing Words Aren’t Enough

Posted on 15 January 2010

It’s hardly news that politicians sometimes say things to particular audiences simply in hopes of pleasing them, without necessarily meaning to follow through on what they seem to have promised. Perhaps that explains President Barack Obama’s odd performance on funding…

Was 2009 a Turning Point?

Posted on 31 December 2009

Was 2009 a turning point for the American bishops, marking a tougher and more realistic approach on their part to the myriad problems, internal and external, besetting the Catholic Church in the United States? It’s too soon for final conclusions,…

The Soul vs. Pornography

Posted on 21 December 2009

The sad case of Tiger Woods offers the familiar spectacle of media and the public setting a celebrity on a pedestal, then taking gleeful satisfaction in knocking him off. If this episode has redeeming value, it’s the reminder that even…

You Don’t Want to Mess with this Catholic

Posted on 04 December 2009

For 16 of the 36 years the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has been in business, it’s been headed by Dr. William Donohue. In that time Bill Donohue has put his own distinctive mark on this feisty anti-defamation…

Professional Priest?

Posted on 21 November 2009

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Pope’s Spiritual Generosity Misunderstood

Posted on 07 November 2009

For me at least, the most dismaying thing about criticism of Pope Benedict’s plan for easing the way for Anglicans who seek to enter the Roman Catholic Church is the critics’ apparent indifference to the spiritual welfare of these Anglicans.…

Performance Issues

Posted on 23 October 2009

European secular liberals and certain people at the Vatican may not have many things in common, but there’s one thing they unquestionably do share: high hopes for the presidency of Barack Obama. The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to…

The Essential Role of Language

Posted on 17 October 2009

Someone I know pretty well, a doctoral candidate in philosophy, has lately been doing editorial work for an encyclopedia in order to earn some money on the side. When she’s engaged in that activity, she keeps at hand a stout…

Taking the Pope’s Thought Seriously

Posted on 30 September 2009

A thoughtful and not unsympathetic discussion of a papal encyclical in a secular, liberal political journal? After all, why not? David Nirenberg’s treatment of Pope Benedict XVI’s economic encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) in the September 23 New…

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