Culture - 2010

Christopher Hitchens. Wikimedia Commons

The New Atheism and that Life Within Us

CultureLorenzo Albacete

Atheistic interpretations of reality show their hollowness not through dialectics, but in light of the very fact of our being alive–A truth brought to the fore by a famous cultural critic and movingly described in a James Baldwin play.

Sagrada Familia. Wikimedia Commons

Love Carved in Stone

CultureDavide Perillo

We visit Europe’s last cathedral and enter the heart of its maker. Our guide, sculptor Etsuro Sotoo, helps us gaze into a dizzying beauty, whose every inch hides the secret of a life “without measure,” and a faith born of stone.

Albert Camus. Wikimedia Commons

Albert Camus: A Man in Revolt

CultureLuca Doninelli

Fifty years ago, one of the greatest twenty century writers died. We’ve re-read his works, finding in them “an indomitable openness” to all of reality, and passion not to censure anything of humanity.

Heather King. Wikimedia Commons

An Embrace at the Gates of Death

CultureSuzanne Tanzi

A popular writer, Heather King, discusses her life and craft in light of the newfound freedom of her conversion and of an everyday life in which she walks arm-in-arm with the Mystery.

Flanner O'Connor. Photo/flickr

Flannery Returns Home

CulturePeter Stockland

The exhibit on the American writer Flannery O’Connor presented at this summer’s Meeting of Rimini will be brought to the New York Encounter event, January 14-16, 2011, while later showings are planned in other U.S. cities.

Playwright Paul Claudel. Wikimedia Commons

The Design Seen in Tidings

CultureGiacomo Maniscalco

Written almost 100 years ago, Paul Claudel’s profound commentary–the play, The Tidings Brought to Mary–on the depths of fulfillment the heart can reach impacts on the post-modern world with force, setting the stage for the upcoming New York Encounter.

Children in Kenya. Flickr

A Lesson From Kenya

CulturePaolo Perego

The travel log of a trip to Nairobi, in a country where tribal divisions are in the blood. Yet, in the midst of the factions, a people is reborn.

View of the Missouri River from the Abbey of Benedictine College. Photographer Patricia Duncan via Wikimedia Commons

Incline the Ear of Your Heart

CultureMeinrad Miller

Thirteen years after its presentation at the United Nations, the first book of Luigi Giussani’s PerCorso trilogy was presented in America’s heartland by Professor Michael Waldstein, in the context of the rest of the series.

Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Wikimedia Commons

Santiago de Compostela: My Journey Begins Here

CultureFabrizio Rossi

The journey covers almost 500 miles, from the Pyrenees to where St. James bore witness to Christ. In this Holy Year, seven million pilgrims will visit his tomb. We discovered that “if God wants to touch your heart, He uses just about everything.”

Flannery O'Connor with her Peafowl. Flickr

Flannery O’Connor: Grace without Limit

CultureAmy Sapenoff

What has led to the presentation of the first-ever exhibit direct from America at this year’s Meeting? First and foremost, the desire to explore the heart of one of the most provoking American writers...

DNA. Creative Commons CC0

Something Left out in the Recipe for life

CultureJane Hubbard

Is “artificial life” possible? It might seem so, after biologist Craig Venter announced the results of his work on the first self-replicating “synthetic” bacterial cell. Jane Hubbard, Associate Professor of Pathology suggests that science is still far off

'Paradiso' by Artist Giovanni di Paolo via Wikimedia Commons

A Language to Hope In

CultureJohn Waters

In his new book, "Beyond Consolation," John Waters examines how modern cultural attitudes toward life and death have reached a point of despair. In describing this trajectory, he criticizes the confusion in the use of language, reason, and freedom.

Icon of Saint Benedict. Creative Commons CC0

In Front of Him

CultureFabrizio Rossi

Silence, liturgy, work. We spent 24 hours at the Benedictine monastery founded in 1971 on the edge of Milan, Italy. It is a place where everything has value, because “it is in relation to Christ”.

Portico de la Gloria at Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. Wikimedia Commons

Under the Portico of Glory

CultureGiuseppe Frangi

The portal of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is like an immense “book of stone” that speaks to every pilgrim. In the Holy Year of the Journey of Santiago, a book and an exhibition explore every detail of the Romanesque masterpiece.

Arabic Caligraphy. Creative Commons CC0

The Challenge for the Road to Peace

CultureStephen Sanchez

“Reason is the most noble gift given to man by God,” insists Fr. Samir Kahlil Samir, who recently met a packed auditorium at the John Paul II Cultural Center in DC to continue an ongoing discussion on Islam–Christian relations. Here is what happened.