Charles Peguy (1873-1914): “It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive.” Elsewhere, I recently published a piece pleading for the universal reinstatement of the Traditional Latin Mass. This plea flies in the face of fears that the usus antiquior will be restricted, or…
As a 1998 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, I regularly get messages from classmates during the football season following a good win or a painful loss. This year’s poor performance against Notre Dame elicited the expected string of angry or bewildered texts, though Navy will still be favored over Army in this year’s edition…
It is often asserted that the Christian societies of old were oppressive, torturous regimes stifling human freedom. This is false. Witness the countless sermons preached by the saints against the worldliness of their day. Men were not forced to go to Mass at the point of a spear. Rather, in a Christian society, there is…
Already by the winter of 2017, I had spent nearly two years as a secular, “conservative” political commentator on various internet platforms. I observed and took part in many of the discussions that dominated the first years of the Donald Trump presidency in the USA, learning about “fringe” views which had for decades been exiled…
A few days ago, Sandro Magister wrote an article on his widely followed blog Settimo Cielo entitled “Worldwide Attack against the Seal of Confession: Either Prison or Excommunication.” He was referring to the pillar of Catholic doctrine on sacramental confession, which holds that what is said by the penitent in the confessional — including whatever…
The Dubious Consciousness of Contemporary Man The modern doctrine on the dignitatis humanae, or dignity of man, has encouraged and even ensured the laïcité, or secularization of the political sphere. The Second Vatican Council’s Dignatis Humanae at first approaches this doctrine in a descriptive manner, noting that “[a] sense of the dignity of the human…
Note: Skip to the On the Contrary if you are not familiar with a Thomistic article. Objection 1: It seems that Patriotism is not a virtue. For our Lord said, My Kingdom is not of this world (Jn. xviii. 36) and, further, we are strangers and pilgrims (I Pt. ii. 11) whose citizenship is in heaven…
In light of today’s news that the pope has “changed the Catechism of the Catholic Church about the death penalty, saying it can never be sanctioned,” we are reprinting this as a reference point for concerned Catholics. –SS, 8/2/2018 When the first version of this column was originally published in March 2015, it was occasioned…
Justice Anthony Kennedy recently announced his resignation from the United States Supreme Court. Good riddance. What Shakespeare said about a traitor’s life in Macbeth applies equally well to Kennedy’s life on the Supreme Court: “Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it.” In other words, Kennedy’s decision to resign during the current presidency…
Right after the Obergefell vs. Hodges decision was announced, the media quickly reported on the “conciliatory” and “moderate” language of Donald Cardinal Wuerl: “The law of the land is the law of the land,” says Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl. “We certainly follow what the law says. That doesn’t mean we change the word…
A new report out of China yesterday indicates that the Vatican has now, for a second time, asked a legitimate bishop to step down and give his episcopal see to a Communist government-appointed bishop who was excommunicated in 2011 after being illicitly consecrated without a papal mandate. Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou was forced…
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