Most cultures have recognized that morality, religion, story, and myth are bound together in some vital way, and that to sever the connections among them leaves us not with strong and independent ethical principles but with weak and unprotected ones.

Robert Hugh Benson was lauded in his own day as one of the leading figures in English literature, yet today he is almost completely forgotten outside Catholic circles and is sadly neglected even among Catholics.

Among Catholic writers there are more familiar names Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Georges Bernanos, Francois Mauriac, Flannery O'Connor - but Sigrid Undset belongs among them.

Graham Greene was a Catholic novelist of considerable spiritual insight whose own unfortunate life-style ultimately weakened his art.

As the day now approached on which she was to depart this life (which day Thou knewst, we did not), it fell out - Thou, as I believe, by Thy secret ways arranging it that she and I stood alone, leaning in a certain window, from which the garden of the house we occupied at Ostia could be seen; at which place, removed from the crowd, we were resting ourselves for the voyage, after the fatigues of a long journey.

The nursery school my daughter attends is full of bright, lively, privileged children. And yet, if you were to visit the children's bedrooms to explore their libraries, you might be surprised at what you find there: limited and unimaginative collections often dominated by Walt Disney, Berenstain Bears, and Sesame Street.

This summer, the racist texts of Flannery O'Connor were banned from the Catholic schools in Lafayette, Louisiana. You hardly know where to begin when faced with a proposition like that.

Of course, all great literature illustrates the dark side of human existence; however, the best authors do not intend darkness itself as entertainment.

There is currently a strong controversy raging over J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Because I have six children of my own, all of them avid readers with an interest in fantasy literature, I have followed it closely.

By disassociating magic and supernatural evil, it becomes possible to portray occult practices as "good" and "healthy," contrary to the scriptural declaration that such practices are "detestable to the Lord."