The excitement surrounding Tiger Woods’ historic win at the Masters golf tournament is undeniable, but it also raises some questions.

Published in Robert Brehl

In a new book, The Case for Trump, scholarly classicist Victor Davis Hanson paints the U.S. president as a tragic hero like Achilles or Ajax from classic Greek literature.

Published in Register Columnists

The repercussions from last month’s viral video of a confrontation between a group of Catholic high school students and a Native American man in Washington, D.C., feed into the schism of faith and politics in the U.S.

Published in Register Columnists

The other day, I went to pay my respects to the widow and two children of a friend and neighbor whom I played pick-up hockey with for several years. He was only 55.

Published in Register Columnists

Do you ever wonder if sometimes the world is upside down?

Published in Robert Brehl

In last week’s edition of The Register, a page was devoted to the late Pope John Paul I for two newsworthy reasons: Pope Francis is putting him on the path towards canonization and a new book attempts to put to rest the conspiracy theories that he was murdered after only 33 days on the chair of St. Peter.

Published in Robert Brehl
When this column cited a vicious smear campaign against Fr. James Martin, it was expected that some people would disagree with his call to build a bridge of dialogue between the Church and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. It was also expected some would agree with his call for civil discourse. Naturally, both things occurred.
Published in Robert Brehl

The other day, I got into a discussion about singularity and artificial intelligence with a computer science student. He’s young, smart and full of optimism. I’m older, debatably wiser and certainly more skeptical about the benefits of AI.

Published in Robert Brehl

Francis caught up in smear job by social ideologues

Published in Robert Brehl

So often we hear and read about the lives of the rich, powerful and famous. Celebrity seems to rule our culture. 

But reflection on the lives of the ordinary, the everyday, the taken-for-granted, is often far more illuminating. If we look beyond the glitz we can see the real stars, the real world, and answers to some of the real questions. 

Published in Robert Brehl

They say all politics is local and that municipal politics is closer to our everyday lives than any level of government. It’s about water, sewage and garbage pickup. It’s about street-light repairs, safe pedestrian crosswalks and parks where our children can play. 

Published in Robert Brehl

Many years ago, a person named Margaret Wente called and offered me a job at the Globe and Mail newspaper, which I accepted. Many, many years ago, I passed through the Catholic school system in Toronto, elementary school at Holy Cross and high school at Neil McNeil. 

Published in Robert Brehl

Media reports this past week about the anti-blasphemy law in Pakistan got me angry, then it got me thinking.

Published in Robert Brehl