To all who are surprised that there was a prominent Catholic who signed the Declaration of Independence. This is a brilliant reminder of the true role of the Catholic Church in US or world history.

“There’s a good story buried somewhere in Conclave, a movie which (fair warning) I am about to spoil heedlessly. People I like and respect have called it an anti-Catholic movie, but—though I see why they say so—I don’t think that’s quite right. What the movie does, though, is take for granted that the Catholic Church needs to move left.”

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Mandatory experience for poets, writers, and Catholics. Buy Dana Gioia’s books, all of them good! No wait: All of them spectacular classics.