History

Good Fridays w/Padre: Symbols & Signs

April 19, 2013 by Father Sorin

This weekend marks the start of the 2013 march to victory for the football team. Fitting, then, that the team is guaranteed a victory in any event because they play with themselves [Editor’s note: Padre doesn’t always appreciate how certain phrases have changed over the years.] [Padre’s note: Get your mind out of the gutter, so Mark May’s can float by.] What used to be the old-timers’ game, the intrasquad scrimmage, or simply ‘the spring game’, has been officially exulted to The University of ...

Good Fridays w/Padre: Atlantis Found

April 12, 2013 by Father Sorin

“When criticizing a Catholic institution, be sure to troop out quaint stereotypes so that your comments contain vague accusations of sacrilege or apostasy, and the humorous implication that its leaders are, in fact, just bad Catholics.” At least that’s what I presume is written in the general press conference guidelines down at Arizona State. Or maybe the athletic director has one of those desk calendars that gives a new piece of advice for every day of the year. But if that’s the case, he ...

Good Fridays w/Padre: Seen & Unseen

April 5, 2013 by Father Sorin

Since every Catholic school in the country has been in recess this week, our little corner of the world has been inundated with prospective students and high school tour groups. It only makes sense, because every little Catholic girl and boy dreams of one day attending the nation’s premier Catholic University…if the Jesuits don’t eat them first. We are also hosting those young men and women who have been admitted to Notre Dame and are spending an overnight visit to get a feel for the place. ...

Spy Wednesday w/Padre

March 27, 2013 by Father Sorin

For obvious reasons, I will not be publishing a column called “Good Fridays” this week. If you think The Lord was angry when he took a whip of cords to the temple moneychangers, try blaspheming on the His least favorite day of the year. Hence I have moved to today, Spy Wednesday. We call it that because this was the day Judas Iscariot, the spy among the Apostles, sold Jesus to the Sanhedrin for 30 pieces of silver. He then famously betrayed The Lord with a kiss – were that to happen today, ...

Good Fridays w/Padre: True Colors

March 22, 2013 by Father Sorin

There has been much criticism leveled at our basketball team’s tournament uniforms, some of it at a very high level. I suppose I can’t really blame the President of the United States for lashing out at us – after all, we keep suing him. But his disdain is only a mere fraction of the fulsome scorn heaped upon these vaguely mucosal sports togs by the Almighty Alumni. Yet, this sartorial experimentation should come as no surprise, since the football team dressed in uniforms of highly ...

Good Fridays w/Padre: Chaplains

February 22, 2013 by Father Sorin

This week, the Michigan State football chaplain got himself in a bit of trouble for making a public boast about the Spartan basketball team, that was of questionable taste (to say the least). I know this is as much of a shock to you as it is to me – not that a priest has a filthy mouth, but that Michigan State athletes would welcome a man of God without trying to boil and eat him. I’m sure you also had the same initial suspicion that I had: a priest with low manners joining freely with our ...

Good Friday’s w/Padre: Pope Brian

February 15, 2013 by Father Sorin

I really must applaud the basketball lads for doing their best to fill the time in the bleak mid-winter. Not for them, a regular-old basketball game. No, our Notre Dame men are pushing their contests from long to longer and even to epochal – and by that I mean measured in geological time. It is a noble effort, but I fear it may be shortening their life-spans and those of the Leprechaun Legion, who did not see much daylight last Sunday after their own “exertions” on and off the court. ...

Good Fridays w/Padre: Mob Rules

February 8, 2013 by Father Sorin

Let me extend a hearty welcome to the Irish Mob! Admittedly, I am not in the habit of welcoming mobs, since I usually associate the word with the Paris Mob and that brings to mind the Reign of Terror. Not that I have any problem with our opponents suffering a four-year-long reign of terror as a result of our Irish Mob; but perhaps we could have chosen a more ethnically appropriate epithet for these lads – say, the Hooligan Crew. ...

Good Fridays w/Padre: Lessons

January 25, 2013 by Father Sorin

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, to say the least. Here are a few ways my eyes have been opened, a few points I have pondered, a few insights I’ve gained: - The head football coach should be a CSC. He doesn’t have to be a priest. The key is that he take a vow of obedience. ...

Good Fridays w/Padre: Courage!

January 11, 2013 by Father Sorin

“By the waters of Miami, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Notre Dame.” This is why, in our wisdom, we make you all take philosophy and theology, whether you like it or not. This is why you have to know a little something about what’s written in the Good Book, in order to be given a diploma written by our University. ...