A sub-category of News.
How could a distinguished modern university professor of philosophy believe in God, the Virgin Mary, angels, and saints? Before his conversion, to such a rhetorical question, the Spanish thinker Manuel García Morente (1886–1942) would always respond with the silence of a superior smile. All these Christian teachings and beliefs were, gently, labeled by him as…
Recent weeks have seen all sorts of folk jumping up and down about a “Nazi revival” among young conservatives in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. Among the many villains pointed at by older folk on the rampage is young Nick Fuentes—who has, however, made up his feud with Tucker Carlson. Perhaps typical—and well written—is…
As the old saying goes, there are two certainties in life: death and taxes. But that formulation has been outdated for centuries. Since the 1694 founding of the Bank of England, there have really been three certainties: death, taxes, and debt. Lots of debt. Debt permeates all aspects of modern life, leaving no one unlevered….
This last November 8, I passed a milestone – I turned 65 years of age. There was no gold watch nor pension awaiting me; as with many junior boomers, my retirement plan is to work until I drop – in all likelihood my retirement village is Notre Dame Cemetery in Fall River, Massachusetts, wherein lies…
Somewhere, about ten years ago, just as Pope Francis was getting into “synodality,” I remember hearing an author say that if the pontiff was looking for a truly relevant but countercultural theme for a synod, “chastity” was the one. I think the idea came from George Weigel, but I’ve never been able subsequently to track…
In 1842, when Fr. Edward Sorin stepped onto the cold Indiana prairie, he set out to build a Catholic university that would shape saints, sharpen minds, and send out citizens anchored in faith. The place was small, the winters brutal, and the resources thin. But Sorin insisted that Notre Dame would shine as a “powerful…
The Holy Father has released an apostolatic letter title “In Unitate Fidei: On the 1700th Annivesrary of the Council of Nicaea.” The opening lines affirm the essence of why we should be “rigid” about Tradition: The very concept of unity in faith is welcome to all traditionalists, as we have continually sounded the alarm that…
Attendance at Mass has plummeted since that New Springtime for the Church, heralded by the Second Vatican Council. There has been no springtime. Indeed, in no area of human culture has there been any such—not in the fine arts, film, literature, education, social institutions, civic life, folkways; not in the ordinary interchanges of human beings…
When I was attending a daily Mass in my home diocese during college, I genuflected (as was my practice at the time) before receiving Holy Communion. Before the priest gave the final blessing, he made an announcement that he noticed that there were several people who genuflected before receiving the Eucharist. We were reminded that…
During the 27 years Karol Wojtyla reigned as Christ’s Vicar on earth, an unprecedented tenure beginning in 1978 and ending with his death in 2005, he managed to accomplish a great many things, not the least being countless pastoral visits (129 to be exact) around the globe, including places which had only the most tenuous…
