(1) Confrontation Amid the Shadows: Caravaggio forces us to bear witness in ‘The Taking of Christ’ (WSJ)

He is all exoskeleton, barely a man at all. The painter has offered an allegory of the way the State—hard, metallic and unyielding—comes to overwhelm compliant, beleaguered, passive humanity.

(2) This may sound like the start of a joke, but bear with me for a moment. How many priests does it take to officiate at a Catholic wedding?