In shocking and good news out of the Vatican, it was announced today: On Friday 25 March, during the Celebration of Penance at which he will preside at 17.00 in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The same act, on the same day, will be…
Last month on February 18th, prominent layman Robert George, professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, posted a defense on Twitter of viewpoint diversity. This, he claims, is the antidote to the Left-wing indoctrination that dominates university classrooms. “Politicians and others are right to object to Woke indoctrination in state (and other) universities,” he said. “[B]ut…
The Pity and the Pretense “Fidelity, fidelity, fidelity!” –Father Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) Father Frank Fourberie (fictitious) is fifty-eight years old. He has been a priest for thirty years, and he is now pastor of a large urban church in a major American city. Father Fourberie is a generally kind, thoughtful, and generous man.…
The whole medieval period bears what may be called the Gregorian imprint; almost everything it had indeed came to it from the Pontiff – the rule of ecclesiastical government, the manifold phases of charity and philanthropy in its social institutions, the principles of the most perfect Christian asceticism and of monastic life, the arrangement of…
Read the last chapter before this one Table of Contents Start reading from chapter 1 *** CHAPTER 10 Malthus my boy, I consulted your instructors at the Academy and my suspicions were correct; the standards in that blasted school really have dropped through the floor. It seems that the lazy devils have grown complacent…
A thousand years ago, on March 12, 1022, a great monk, a teacher of theology and spirituality that the Christian East can boast, died: St. Symeon the New Theologian. His biographer, Niceta Stethatos, who was also his fervent disciple, reports that George — this was his baptismal name — was born in 949 in Galatai,…
You’ve probably noticed that Gospel readings begin, “In illo tempore… in that time.” Well… what time is that? It is helpful to interrogate texts with classic questions from ancient rhetoric: “Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando?” You can probably recognize what I am about without me telling you. Aristotle formulated them, Cicero rendered…
“Russian Roulette” pt. 2 Read part 1 here Ruined! Ruined! My time has clean run out! The clock has stopped, the pygmy house has crumbled. Soon I shall embrace eternity to my breast, and soon I shall howl gigantic curses at mankind. … If there is a Something which devours, I’ll leap within it, though…
I am reading through a letter issued recently by my bishop. Before I say anything further, I must point out that he was consecrated as bishop just last June. However, given the frequent mention of masks and hand sanitizer, the letter tells me he is already quite familiar with the ways and workings of modern…
What does it mean to be a “traditional Catholic?” If you listen to some of our critics, it means we must slavishly fit their stereotype of a 1950s white suburban middle class American Catholic. And if we are honest with ourselves, perhaps sometimes we also have that expectation. To be a traditional Catholic in this…
The holy season of Lent has taken on a new meaning for Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago, as they continue to be denied the Traditional Latin Mass on the first Sunday of the month in archdiocesan churches per directives from Cardinal Blase Cupich. But, in typical Chicago fashion, they aren’t taking the Cardinal’s bullying…
