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Opinions / Columnists / John Garvey
  • john-garvey-150

    As we forgive our trespassers

    We recently added the papers of Father Richard John Neuhaus to our university library's collection of important figures in American Catholic history. ... More

    3/28/18
    John Garvey | Catholic News Service
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    Good sports

    When I was about 13, I had a bad temper — so bad that I quit playing golf.

     

    ... More

    2/22/18
    John Garvey | For the Catholic Herald
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    About praising famous men

    I wish we had a litmus test to identify the people who deserve our praise. But it won't ever be simple. We are all sinners. The best we can hope for is an impressive balance on the side of virtue. As Chernow shows, we should be slow in weighing the evidence.

     

     

     

    ... More

    1/24/18
    John Garvey
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    Repeat after me

    The Supreme Court heard arguments last month in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a case about whether the government can make a Christian baker design a cake celebrating a same-sex wedding.  

     

    ... More

    1/2/18
    John Garvey | Catholic News Service
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    Why poetry matters

    Richard Wilbur died last month. He was, Dana Gioia said, the finest poet of his generation and the greatest American Christian poet since Eliot. 

    ... More

    11/22/17
    John Garvey | Catholic News Service
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    Making and renewing vows

    Last week a friend invited my wife and me to join her in celebrating the 50th anniversary of her perpetual vows. It was a simple but moving ceremony. There was a Mass with guests and members of her religious community. At the offertory she renewed her vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and hospitality.

    ... More

    10/25/17
    John Garvey | Catholic News Service
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    The prerogative power

    Urging the president to exercise prerogative power gives Congress a happy outcome without the attendant responsibility. But it hands back to the executive a responsibility that it took centuries to take away from him.

    ... More

    9/20/17
    John Garvey
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    The company of good people

    St. Bonaventure says, in his little treatise "Bringing Forth Christ," "Seek the company of good people. If you share their company, you will also share their virtue." With this thought in mind, we used to pay close attention to who our children's friends were.

    ... More

    7/26/17
    John Garvey
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    Sarin and the Congress

    Amid the general, bipartisan enthusiasm for the president's decision to fire 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base, I worry that we have lost sight of an important principle. 

    ... More

    4/20/17
    John Garvey
    john-garvey-150

    Form and chaos

    I am not the first to notice that ideas and styles spread across the fine arts, regardless of medium or genre. In the middle of the 19th century, orchestras grew to 100 or more musicians, and symphonies were lush and tuneful. 

    ... More

    3/28/17
    John Garvey
    john-garvey-150

    The Johnson Amendment

    At the National Prayer Breakfast last month, President Donald Trump promised to "totally destroy" the Johnson Amendment "and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution." I must confess that, on the list of things I hope the new administration will accomplish this year, this one is fairly far down.

    ... More

    3/1/17
    John Garvey
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    Apostolate to the fourth world

    When the U.S. Catholic bishops do their laudable work in looking out for the needs and rights of migrants and refugees, they are looking out for a large and vulnerable share of their flock.

    ... More

    1/25/17
    John Garvey
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    The future of religious liberty

    The media, and we who listen to them, were surprised at the election results. I have a feeling it's not the last surprise we are in for. 

    ... More

    11/30/16
    John Garvey
    john-garvey-150

    Choosing the right track

    There is a thought experiment in moral philosophy, made famous by Philippa Foot, called the trolley problem. Imagine you are the driver of a runaway trolley that you can steer but not stop. Up ahead, the track forks in two.

    ... More

    11/2/16
    John Garvey

    Politics and the court

    Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg caused quite a stir this month by saying what was on her mind about Donald Trump to the New York Times. "I can't imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president," she said.

    ... More

    9/29/16
    John Garvey | Catholic News Service
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    Don't mess with Mother Nature

    Catholic children learn the corporal and spiritual works of mercy (seven each) about the same time they learn the seven sacraments. Most of them come directly from the Gospel, especially from the description of the last judgment. They include feeding the hungry and visiting the sick, for example, as well as admonishing sinners and bearing wrongs patiently.

    ... More

    9/26/16
    John Garvey | Catholic News Service

    Mother Teresa: Witness of modern-day holiness

    Blessed Teresa of Kolkata came to The Catholic University of America 45 years ago to receive her first honorary degree. If I'd been president of our school at the time I would have tried hard to get a picture of her in a Catholic University sweatshirt. 

    ... More

    8/19/16
    John Garvey | Catholic News Service

    Politics and the court

    Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg caused quite a stir this month by saying what was on her mind about Donald Trump to the New York Times. "I can't imagine what the country would be - with Donald Trump as our president," she said.

    ... More

    7/22/16
    John Garvey
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    Justice Scalia: Man of the people

    Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, God rest his soul, was routinely described as a conservative, and so he was. He held fast to a lot of traditional values. He loved his church, his wife and nine children, and his country.

    ... More

    2/17/16
    John Garvey

    Learning from Mom

    Some people are naturally funny and good storytellers. I wish I were one of them. I have to speak in public often, and at times I have no choice but to wing it. I'm not funny or especially quick-witted, though. So when I'm called on to speak extemporaneously, it's a bit scary. I launch into sentences like a man walking down a blind alley, not knowing quite how he'll get out the other end.

    ... More

    11/23/15
    John Garvey

    The shoes of the fisherman

    In 1968, there was a popular film entitled "The Shoes of the Fisherman," about an archbishop from Ukraine - a former political prisoner who is elected pope. On the evening after his election, he sneaks out of the Vatican dressed as a simple priest to explore the city of Rome. He declines to wear the papal tiara. He undertakes to sell the church's property to relieve a famine in China, and encourages wealthy nations to follow his example.

    ... More

    10/13/15
    John Garvey

    Humanizing precious life

    Ultrasound technology was in its early days when my wife and I were having children. Pictures of our babies in utero always looked like Rohrschach blots to me. I couldn't tell top from bottom. The doctors could, though. It became possible for the first time to tell the sex of the baby before it was born.

    ... More

    9/9/15
    John Garvey

    Modern lamentations

    "How solitary sits the city,

    ... More

    5/27/15
    John Garvey

    In a world of brotherly love

    Every year around this time, I go away with my three brothers to play golf for an extended weekend. Next to Christmas, it is my favorite time of the year. We have taken on greater family and professional responsibilities. Still, in more than 20 years, not one of us has missed our golf trip. It is an important commitment.

    ... More

    4/7/15
    John Garvey

    'Je suis Charlie'?

    Islamic extremists touched a particularly sensitive nerve in the West this month with the murders of cartoonists from the satirical French weekly, Charlie Hebdo. The killings provoked a rally in Paris that French officials called the largest ever. President Francois Hollande was joined by the heads of European states, and by both the Israeli prime minister and the president of the Palestinian Authority.

    ... More

    1/30/15
    John Garvey
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  • COLUMNIST BIO

    John Garvey
    John Garvey

    John Garvey is the President of The Catholic University of America. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including  Religion and the Constitution  (2011), which won the Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit book award; and of  Sexuality and the U.S. Catholic Church  (2007), which won the Catholic Press Association award. Mr. Garvey has been married to Jeanne Walter Garvey for 40 years. They have five children, 18 grandchildren, and a rescue dog named Gus.

     

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