Persuasion is a novel of Jane Austen. Anne Elliot, whose word had “no weight” with either her father or sister, explains that, “If I was wrong in yielding to persuasion once, remember that it was to persuasion exerted on the side of safety, not of risk.” Persuasion concerns things that can be otherwise. Persuasion is … Read more
What needs salvation in our time, after our own souls, is the classical English language. From what does it need saving? From ideological censorship busily changing, crimping, sissifying, and otherwise ruining our great tongue. All of this is occurring in the name of “diversity,” “sensitivity,” and “rights.” It is really censorship, practiced in the highest … Read more
St. Thomas Aquinas is known for being, at the same time, very terse and very diffusive. He can state the basic principles of all that is in a few brief, riveting Latin words. At the same time, he has no difficulty, in a short life, writing volumes and volumes of fundamental principles on all phases … Read more
A professor I once knew gave history tests in the following format: “Draw a line down the center of the page. On the left side, write what you know on the subject; on the right side, what you do not know.” The logical temptation of such instruction is to put as many things possible on … Read more
Truth has become unfriendly. We “hold” these truths that no truth can exist, that all views are created equal, that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are defined only by ourselves. They have no objective content. We have nothing in common except that we have nothing in common. Our civic peace exists on the … Read more
Zenit reported (June 13, 2003) that at the Great Mosque in Rome a Muslim cleric called for the annihilation of “the enemies of Islam and [a] guarantee everywhere in the world [of] the victory of the Nation of Islam.” This outburst caused the raising of not a few Italian eyebrows. Bill O’Reilly, among others, holds … Read more
Some months ago, I read an essay of the English Dominican Vincent McNabb (1868-1943). In it, McNabb recalled his own family, his parents with eleven children, their Christmas in Ireland. The children received few gifts for Christmas. But, he thought, each of his brothers and sisters was a gift. A gift, after all, is a … Read more
The sky west prop plane from Salt Lake to Casper passed over mountains, valleys, ridges, and clefts, mostly barren. A road, town, or farm was rarely sighted. Bishop David Ricken, D.D., of Cheyenne—only one bishop in Wyoming—realized that Catholics in Wyoming had no Catholic college (it may have been a blessing!). The University of Wyoming … Read more
On Tuesday, October 12, 1779, Boswell reports that he and Johnson dined in London at Mr. Ramsay’s. Present were Lord Newhaven and “a beautiful Miss Graham,” a relative of “His Lordship’s.” Indeed, His Lordship asked Johnson to “hob or nob with her.” This expression “hob or nob,” however suspicious sounding, means to drink and toast … Read more
I began to write this column on a Sunday morning last winter, during the heaviest snowstorm in years. The scene on Georgetown University’s campus was stunningly beautiful. Before breakfast, I went into the inner courtyard to take a photo of the Healy towers from the back, then of the small chapel, the trees and old … Read more
War, as they say, clears the air, and sometimes the mind. It isn’t true that all wars are just. But it’s even less true that all wars are unjust. The “legal” and absolute elimination of war is, in practice, more likely to lead to injustice than to justice. We sometimes hear it said that the … Read more
Hilaire Belloc died on Thursday, July 16, 1953, a half-century ago. He was simply the best essayist in our language. If someone asks me what is Belloc’s greatest essay, I have to say, honestly, “the last one I read.” I love his essay on the English city of Lynn in Hills and the Sea. His … Read more
One of the arguments for Islam is that it’s a relatively simple religion. Its essential system is very brief; it can be stated in five principles with few basic requirements. Catholicism is complicated. As Chesterton said, it is complex because the reality it deals with is complex. Catholicism understands itself to be directly derived—if I … Read more
J. R. R. Tolkien Advised his son, Christopher, to memorize the Mass in Latin. The reason for this good advice was that “if you have these [words of the Mass] by heart, you never need for words of joy.” Tolkien spoke of the Tridentine Latin Mass, though most of the joy words, mercifully, survive in … Read more
Wearing his baseball cap and uniform, Charlie Brown comes into his living room, where his sister, Sally, sits watching TV on her bean-bag chair. Dejectedly, Charlie says to her, “It’s the last game of the season, and we lost.” Sally just walks away, saying to a puzzled Charlie, “So what does that mean?” With his … Read more
The Catholic Church teaches that everyone ought to know certain things about God, man, and the world. This position—factually, not arrogantly, held—means that, now as in centuries past, concentrated effort must be made to bring this knowledge to others whatever their political or cultural condition. As Pope John Paul II put it on World Mission … Read more
Five years ago, the title of this Crisis column was—you guessed it!—”Schall at 70.” Time, as they say, marches on—or, to cite an old song, it “changes everything.” Actually, if time literally changed everything, including “what it is to be Schall,” Schall would not still be here. Though shaky, evidence supports the thesis that he … Read more
Selling one’s soul to the devil to acquire riches, political or intellectual power, or pleasure is a theme as old as Adam and Eve. It is what the tempting of Christ in the desert was about; it is what Faust is about. The issue can come up in amusing ways. In Elmore Leonard’s novel Tishomingo … Read more
The responsorial refrain for the Friday of the 15th Ordinary Week reads, “You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die” (Isaiah 38:10-17). Taken literally, this is nonsense. We shall die. What is peculiar to Christianity is, indeed, the resurrection of the body, but this doctrine does not mean that we shall not die. … Read more
A month after the fall semester begins, we can talk about students. Parents often wonder what students are learning in their classes. In 1933, Etienne Gilson, in a lecture titled “The Eminence of Teaching” (A Gilson Reader, 1957), recalled St. John Baptist de la Salle, the founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. “We … Read more