G. K. Chesterton, that archetypal Englishman—he really could not be imagined as any other nationality—wrote probably the best biography of another quintessential Englishman, Charles Dickens. Chesterton’s biography is so wonderful, and so brimming with insight and understanding of his subject, mainly because he moves thematically through the life of Charles Dickens, rather than year by … Read more
As happens every four years, a presidential election has taken place. The victors of these contests have been varied in talent and temperament. Some have been truly heroic, and politically unambitious, accepting, rather than angling, for office. The first exemplar of these usually contradictory qualities was George Washington. Another was… well, you see the problem. … Read more
In 1938, during the dark days of the Holocaust, Pope Pius XI declared to Catholics—and all Christians that “Spiritually, we are Semites.” Christians and Jews are all Children of Abraham and must stand in solidarity against evil in the world. It is also true that studying Jewish history and religion reveals the roots of the … Read more
I am honored to call all four of the headmasters in the history of Gregory the Great Academy close friends. I include, of course, the founding headmaster, Alan Hicks, even though 30 years ago when I was a young Marine officer looking to become a teacher, he turned me down for a position. I never … Read more
In his letter to a confused Church in the city of Corinth, Saint Paul wrote this exhortation: Whoever… eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of … Read more
At the beginning of the 2005 conclave, Pope Benedict XVI preached a now-famous homily condemning what he called the “dictatorship of relativism.” The newly-elected pontiff warned: “We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.” Benedict’s words elicited … Read more
On the moral illicitness of the use of vaccines made from cells derived from aborted human fetuses In recent weeks, news agencies and various information sources have reported that, in response to the Covid-19 emergency, some countries have produced vaccines using cell lines from aborted human fetuses. In other countries, such vaccines are being planned. … Read more
Despite their terrible suffering, not just in recent years under ISIS, but after centuries of being treated as second-class citizens, Iraqi Christians are happy people. There are two things that are guaranteed to make them smile, if not actually laugh out loud. The first is to ask them what they think will happen to the … Read more
Perhaps because of the severity of the Covid restrictions currently in place, the public in Austria has had more pressing worries than the follow-up investigation into the Islamic terrorist murder spree on November 2. The All Souls’ Day massacre that claimed the lives of three people in Vienna’s downtown district as well as the twenty-year-old … Read more
Americans who identify as conservatives thought that, when President Donald Trump was able to get three conservative justices appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Barrett—the tide favoring the institution of the family, which is based on marriage exclusively between one man and one woman, had finally turned. More so after … Read more
Aristotle said that the ideal polis has no more than ten thousand citizens. Well, Dixville Notch has twelve. That little hamlet in New Hampshire, nestled up there by the Canadian border, has exactly one dozen citizens—five of whom voted in the 2020 election; all five went for Mr. Biden. If there had been fraud committed … Read more
Many Catholics were probably surprised to see Pope Francis’s name appear on the op-ed page of The New York Times. (Then again, maybe not.) The article—which was actually an excerpt from his new book Let Us Dream—confirms what we already knew: the coronavirus pandemic has weighed heavily on the Holy Father’s mind. Like all crises, … Read more
Poland and Hungary are in trouble with the European Union again. Ostensibly, this time it is a budgetary dispute that neither Warsaw nor Budapest is willing to sign off on. But, in essence, it is a clash of postmodernism on the one hand and traditionalism on the other. Brussels endeavors brutally to impose its social-engineering … Read more
In our post-democratic era, there are all sorts of questions of identity being bandied around the post-Christian West, not least in our own United States. The dominant view for over two centuries saw this nation as primarily an instrument of freedom, firstly for itself, and then for all the world. For those of a conservative … Read more
On December 6, major news outlets announced that “President-elect” Joe Biden selected California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Prior to the announcement, it was rumored that Becerra would serve as the U.S. Attorney General under the Biden Administration, given his involvement with the “Biden for Catholics” … Read more
Amid an otherwise estimable analysis of the Pilgrims’ early years and legacy, Christopher Caldwell makes a common mistake in the Claremont Review of Books, describing Myles Standish not just as “brave, erudite, underhanded, and so diminutive that he was known (though not to his face) as Captain Shrimp”—all true—but as “a secular mercenary” to boot. … Read more
The Pilgrims first sighted land off Cape Cod on November 9, 1620, after spending sixty-five days at sea. They rejoiced, singing Psalm 100, a traditional song of thanksgiving. But as William Bradford recorded in Of Plymouth Plantation, it was winter when, “all things stand upon them with a weatherbeaten face.” “They had no friends to welcome them, … Read more
It has always surprised me that the mainstream press is so down on Theodore McCarrick. In fact, one would expect them to take his side. An elderly gay man trapped in a homophobic institution, taking young men to his beach house so he can seduce them… I’m surprised The New York Times hasn’t asked Mr. … Read more
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declared that “there will be no Christmas this year.” When I read that, my thoughts immediately turned to a popular song containing the charmingly inverted opening lyrics, “There’ll always be a Christmas; a Christmas there’ll always be.” Sometimes there is more truth in popular songs than in political pronouncements. … Read more
In the film Full Metal Jacket, which is set during the Vietnam War, there is a scene where a platoon of American soldiers is pinned down by a sniper. Two soldiers have already been hit. They writhe in pain, and perhaps death throes, out in the open. The newly christened platoon leader, “Cowboy,” tells his … Read more