In Plato’s Republic, soldiers are called “watchdogs.” The military guardians are necessary either to protect one’s city from greedy neighbors or, if the city is itself undisciplined, to assist in conquering the land or goods that are wanted or needed. The watchdog is seen to be someone who attacks an enemy but who is friendly … Read more
Recently my state, Rhode Island, became the second in the nation to ban discrimination against people who have employed surgery and massive doses of hormones to form upon their bodies parodies of the sex God saw fit not to give them. Justices in California, meanwhile, overruling the little wards of that state (once upon a … Read more
The above title is of a book, published 100 years ago in 1908. It is the single-best book published in the last hundred years. Take it on faith if you must. Read it, you will find out. The book is profound, witty, memorable, incisive, and brilliant. It is, of course, G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. The … Read more
In Raymond Arroyo’s fascinating EWTN interview with President George W. Bush before Pope Benedict XVI’s visit, President Bush said some very revealing things about how he views the sources of terrorism and, in general, the world. In two instances, his basically sound instincts led him awry. Both involve issues central to the country’s security, … Read more
Holy Father, welcome to my country. Your presence cheers thousands of us Catholic professors and students who love the Church and want her to be more of a presence in our lives at school. You will find more enthusiasm than suspicion among the young, who are coming to see that the secularism they have been … Read more
Sen. John McCain cannot win in November without the Catholic vote, which is around 25 percent of the electorate. How is he going to get it? The worst thing he could assume is that it is going to fall into his lap because Catholics will have nowhere else to go. Some people with nowhere to … Read more
Overwhelmed with information, we often miss revealing tidbits in the news that can be so enriching to our appreciation of life as it is lived early in the 21st century. Herewith, for your delectation, some items you may have missed from early 2008. Overwhelmed with information, we often miss revealing tidbits in the news … Read more
In Exodus 22, we read, “Whoever sacrifices to any god, except to the Lord alone, shall be doomed.” The word “sacrifice” in this passage means to offer an oblation whose consummation acknowledges the Lordship of Yahweh over all things. By extension, it forbids the performance of any act that implicitly praises or honors a god … Read more
“What do you think you’re doing!” cried the great scientist to the soldier, as he leaned over his tracings in the sand. The soldier — who had no idea who the man was, and how much his commander wanted him alive — slew him on the spot. Â Had his world needed the works of … Read more
A term paper on Aristotle ended with the following sentence, not in quotation marks: “After all, a good man can only be truly good in the company of other good men.” The sentence struck me. Was it a citation from some place? I checked Google. The references it gave were no help. Many passages used … Read more
Demonstrating the power of bad precedent, the United States is about to replicate its incompetent diplomacy in the Balkans from the 1990s by recognizing an imminent unilateral declaration of independence by the Serbian province of Kosovo. A similar act helped start the brutal civil war in Bosnia back in 1992. America encouraged, and then recognized, … Read more
Schall was born January 20, 1928, on a farm in Pocahontas County, Iowa. You cannot get more American than that. My mother was Bohemian and my father German-Irish. To my Jesuit colleagues at breakfast on my birthday I hint that this memorable event happened in a log cabin. Most doubt this as too picturesque, while … Read more
“Come sit over here,” my wife whispered to me. “Let’s give Dad a chance to be alone with her.” It was a quiet room in a hospice, the only sounds the muffled pumping of oxygen, and the softer and slower breathing of my mother-in-law, Esther, as she lay a few hours before her death. Her … Read more
From French ninja-antiquers to the Great Venezuelan Toilet Paper Caper, here’s a quick jaunt through the most ridiculous news items of the past month. Overwhelmed with information, we often miss revealing tidbits in the news that can be so enriching to our appreciation of life as it is lived early in the 21st century. Herewith, … Read more
“The Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us” (Jn 1: 14). We begin with the Beginning. The Word was with God. The Word was God. Flesh did not make the Word. What “dwelt amongst us” was the Word, the Logos, nothing less. This is a fact. The whole world is different because of it. … Read more
This is the fourth of a four-part debate between Robert R. Reilly and Russell Shaw on the question, “Was the Iraq War just?” Â It simply will not do to demote the importance of enforcing treaties at the end of wars to some kind of adolescent “need to save face.” After World War I, the … Read more
This is the third of a four-part debate between Robert R. Reilly and Russell Shaw on the question, “Was the Iraq War just?” Russell Shaw is an eminently reasonable man, so I am not surprised that he acknowledges that the differences between our two positions are based not on principles but on the wisdom of … Read more
This is the first round of a 4 part debate between Robert R. Reilly and Russell Shaw on the question, “Was the Iraq war just?” Â Saddam Hussein’s regime was evil and it threatened vital U.S. national security interests. Its extirpation achieved a great good, the final accomplishment of which is still in the balance … Read more
The unanimous vote by St. Thomas University’s Board of Trustees to sever ties with the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese is just the most recent attempt by a Catholic university to limit the influence of orthodox Catholic leaders on its campus. Voting to change the university’s bylaw that maintained the sitting archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis as the … Read more
While staying in the rectory of the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Club at the University of North Dakota, on the shelves of the guest room I noticed the B.A.C. edition of Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae. I had seen this edition before. With a few moments to spare, I took down the third part of the Summa, … Read more