From: National Catholic Reporter | Date: July 12, 1996| Author: Farrell, Michael J. | COPYRIGHT 1996 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

By Joseph Gallagher Triumph Books (Liguori, Mo.), 240 pages, $14.95

Dante is probably a contraction of Durante. As in the late Jimmy Durante. Thus does Fr. Joseph Callagher bring the great poet down to earth and up to date.

His full name, as every school person knows, was Dante Alighieri. He was born in Florence, Italy, in 1265 and died of malaria in Ravenna in 1321, and history long ago decided he was a genius. He wrote other works, but The Divine Comedy is why...