We’ll start with the blasphemy of the year. There’s nothing quite like relaxing at the opera with abundant female nudity, fresh blood, (real) skin piercings, and actual lesbian sex acts. This used to be called porn, and one did not go to the opera for it. Paul Hindemith’s half-hour one-act opera Sancta Susanna (1922), which … Read more
A look at the latest absurdities of our culture and politics from Robert R. Reilly.
From Paris to Wall Street to Milwaukee, the world is full of absurdities that defy common sense and reason.
The works of P.G. Wodehouse contain a seemingly unlimited supply of fun quotes to help break the doom and gloom of today’s news.
If you had successfully reversed several millennia of religious teaching that sodomy is a moral abomination in a mere 50 years, I guess you’d be proud too.
Robert Reilly takes a look at the latest news and sees absurdities all around us.
As the late, great Fr. James Schall reminded us, “St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that the greatest service that we can offer our neighbor is to know the truth, to speak the truth.” Austin Ruse offers this greatest service in his new book, Under Siege: No Finer Time to Be a Faithful Catholic. Full disclosure: Austin … Read more
Attorney General William Barr was excoriated by the mainstream press and the social media offenderati for his speech at the (Roman Catholic) University of Notre Dame last week. Yet the A.G. was simply spelling out the reality of life in modern America: here is what we have lost, here are the reasons why, and here’s what’s happening as … Read more
Editor’s note: The following eulogy was delivered at the funeral of Faith Whittlesey, who died at home on May 21 at the age of 79. I had the honor of working for Faith both in the Reagan White House and the U.S. Embassy in Switzerland. I admired her unreservedly and we became great friends. I … Read more
Of all the misconceived nonsense in the recent Windsor v. United States ruling, perhaps the most egregious was Justice Anthony Kennedy’s insinuation that “the children made me do it.” Windsor declared the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional because it defined marriage as being between one man and one woman. Why was DOMA a problem for … Read more
The Boy Scouts have fought long and hard against being forced to include avowed homosexuals in its ranks as either Scouts or scoutmasters. In the Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000), the Supreme Court upheld the Boy Scouts’ First Amendment right of expressive association in removing an assistant scoutmaster who was “an avowed homosexual … Read more
As June approaches, get ready for the official celebration of “Gay Pride Month” by US embassies abroad. If sodomy and same-sex marriage are constitutional rights, what is their relationship to American foreign policy? Despite the tremendous controversy regarding these issues within the United States, the Obama administration has gone ahead and placed them at the … Read more
Next week, the Supreme Court will begin its consideration of two cases, one concerning the Defense of Marriage Act and the other California’s Proposition 8 Amendment, which may settle in the near-term the questions concerning the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. Both the Marriage Act and Proposition 8 define marriage as being between a man and … Read more
Los Angeles today might not be the first place that comes to mind when seeking out hymns to the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, a recent concert on Sunday, November 18, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, featuring Monteverdi’s Vespers (Vespro della Beata Vergine) of 1610, was not the first time that this city has lived … Read more
In this column, it has been my special brief to pursue and attempt to resuscitate the reputation of great 20th century and contemporary classical music that I think has been neglected. There is a lot of it, which is why I published a book 10 years ago, titled Surprised by Beauty: A Listener’s Guide to … Read more
One of the privileges of writing this column is that I occasionally get to meet the composers of the music I review. I had a meeting this past year with a musician with whom I have been in correspondence for some time. Morten Lauridsen, the most frequently performed American choral composer, came to Washington, D.C. … Read more
During a late summer adventure that took me to Rimini, Italy, I was able to stop over in London for a day to catch a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in the wonderful Proms series, which is one of the musical glories of that great city. I’ve never been particularly taken with the symphonies … Read more
The headline above has been posed as a question. However, at the Rimini Meeting in Italy, from which I have just returned, it was put forth in a statement as the main theme of a week-long event (August 19-25) that seemed to examine every aspect of life within the broader context of its divine purpose. … Read more
Governor Mitt Romney seems to have stirred up some controversy by the remarks he made to a gathering in Jerusalem the other week. Contrasting Israel and the Palestinian territories, he said, “You notice a stark difference in economic vitality. And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments … Read more
Our musical adventures this month will take us through the twenthieth-century to contemporary times. You need not fear. Despite the temporary triumph of cacophony for about half a century, beautiful music was written even under the siege of the avant-garde and is still being created today. I begin with the great good news that one of … Read more