Today is the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Catholic theologian and perhaps the greatest philosopher in the history of the west. Here is a short video from Fr. Robert Barron introducing Aquinas, and particularly his view on faith and reason and his humanism. Like Fr. Barron, exposure to Aquinas set me on an entirely new path in my life. For those interested in more, I recommend Chesterton’s biography called The Dumb Ox or, better, get it for a few bucks more with Chesteron’s fabulous biography of St. Francis.

A reflection on Lady Gaga, who offers us “misdirected eros, misappropriation of religious symbolism, and mistaken hyperdulia of the wrong Madonna … all set to an irresistible beat.” I’ll confess to being a bit drawn to Lady Gaga’s music, both for its irresistible beat but also because it seems to be something like the Platonic Form of Pop.

Here is a really cool interactive tour of the Sistine Chapel, put together by some people at Villanova at Vatican request. You can view every part by clicking and dragging to pan around. In the bottom left is a + / – to zoom in and out

I rarely see movies, but there is enough being said about The Rite that I may make an exception. This article reviews how exorcism has been treated in past Hollywood films. This article, like most, gives the movie a mixed but mostly positive review. That seems to be the theme in most Catholic reviews and blogs, but perhaps Catholics expect to be treated unfairly so are just pleased with a movie that is not out and out anti-Catholic.