Every Catholic should by rights be an imperialist. As Rev. Robert Hugh Benson once wrote, “There were, after all, only two logical theories of government: the one, that power came from below, the other, that power came from above. The infidel, the Socialist, the materialist, the democrat, these maintained the one; the Catholic, the Monarchist, … Read more
When asked my politics, I sometimes say, “Papal Insurrectionist.” In the classic Catholic novel, Dawn of All, by Robert Hugh Benson, I get my wish. Here is a future wherein the world (or at least Europe and the Americas and increasing parts of Asia and elsewhere) has come to be “really and intelligently Christian.” And … Read more
“Petrie, I have traveled from Burma not in the interests of the British Government merely, but in the interests of the entire white race….” So begins The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu. For “white race,” these days we might say “the West,” but the mission of Burmese commissioner Nayland Smith, hero of Sax Rohmer’s Fu-Manchu novels, … Read more
With its divine foundation, sanction, and mission, nothing could be more glorious than the Catholic Church. But, of course, many people—even many baptized Catholics—don’t see it that way. Yet when the sins of men—or secular material progress, or our own self-centeredness—blind us to this, they blind us to everything. The Renaissance, a great Catholic moment, … Read more