The recent Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) which upheld the individual mandate as constitutional portends grave danger for those religious organizations now suing the federal government for infringing on their religious liberty. These groups rightly contend that the government has no right to decide who is religious enough to … Read more
In his 1911 preface to Dawn of All, Robert Hughes Benson proposes: to sketch—again in parable—the kind of developments, about sixty years hence which, I think, may reasonably be expected should the opposite process begin, and ancient thought (which has stood the test of centuries, and is, in a very remarkable manner, being “rediscovered” by … Read more
So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you, Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or the present or the future: all things belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God. I Cor. 3.21-23 St. Bonaventure (1217-1274), the “Seraphic Doctor,” has much … Read more
Shortly before he died in Oxford in 1988, the Jesuit retreat master and raconteur, Bernard Bassett, in good spirits after a double leg amputation, told me that the great lights of his theological formation had been Ignatius Loyola and John Henry Newman, but if he “had to do it all over,” he’d only read Paul. “Everything is … Read more
Is a life worth a dollar? Is it worth a hundred dollars? Is it worth a million plus dollars? These seemingly innocuous questions are frequently put to us by those advocating cause A, B or C. The only answer, and the one they expect to hear, is that life is priceless and, consequently, their cause … Read more
And was Jerusalem built here Among those dark satanic mills? … I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem In England’s green and pleasant land (“Jerusalem,” by William Blake). Last month marked the 100th anniversary of the most deadly industrial accident in America. … Read more
This article originally appeared on Ethika Politika Lately Americans have been talking more explicitly than usual about what is called American exceptionalism. For most of my lifetime not much was said about this directly. Apparently most people just took it for granted and assumed that everyone believed it. But now politicians think they have to … Read more
Heavy-hearted, Sophronius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, set out to meet the Caliph, the successor to the Muslim prophet Muhammad, at the gates of the Holy City. The surrender had already been negotiated, after a siege that had lasted four months. Sophronius, patriarch of the city since 634, had decided that the city must be surrendered. … Read more
Can science prove or disprove the existence of God? Has the origin of creation without a creator come to be settled science? Are these questions knowable, even by the brightest minds in the world? Yes, sort of, is the basic answer… Except for the question of ‘settled science,’ because it’s not settled and if anything, … Read more
Africa is a continent of great spiritual and cultural wealth, but also of great material poverty. The way forward for African economies is not aid and development assistance, but prudent business management that enables African workers to attain higher levels of productivity for their efforts. But what model of business management is appropriate for the … Read more
The gruesome gorgon of Marxist historiography has been finally and thoroughly discredited by the very historical process in which it reposed ultimate faith for its own “scientific” vindication, yet this is a fact that a still largely Marxist, or Marxist-tainted, tenured historical profession is most unwilling to acknowledge. An Italian journalist recently and prominently interviewed … Read more
For the past two decades I’ve taught in Cracow every July. I’d not trade the experience for anything, but it’s had one drawback: I haven’t seen baseball’s All Star Game in a long time. The game itself is no big deal. But the sight of so many great players gathered in one place is an … Read more
There are some things in Catholic and Christian life that are not often discussed, or consequently a regular part of our thinking. It has been suggested, for example, that one will not find a single Christian hymn devoted to the dogma of “the resurrection of the body.” St. Augustine said centuries ago that, “No doctrine … Read more
In 2001, St. Augustine’s Press published a new edition of Robert Hugh Benson’s 1907 novel, The Lord of the World. A friend of mine in Vermont recently urged me to read it, and I did. Ralph McInerny, in a brief introduction, writes: “The novel wonderfully conveys the flatness and boredom of a world without God. … Read more
Same-sex marriage and related claims, such as adoption of children, are fast becoming flavor of the month among western politicians. Irish pollies are among the latest, so the family-oriented Iona Institute has prepared an excellent, short, briefing paper on the subject. Iona’s director, David Quinn, introduces the brief, noting that “even people who are instinctively … Read more
“Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty to … Read more
This essay is adapted from the 2012 Lyceum college preparatory school commencement speech. I am grateful to the founding parents and benefactors of the Lyceum that you have not had to grow up in a cultural wilderness as I did. Why anyone would be nostalgic for the 70’s I do not know. To give you … Read more
The case that received more media attention and more consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court than any in recent history has been decided. The 5-4 decision upheld the “individual mandate,” the central feature of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, i.e. “Obamacare.” Although the decision, crafted by Chief Justice John Roberts, contains much “bad … Read more
An academic scandal is afoot. Heedless of economic turmoil and a vortex of national spending, American college students continue to borrow a staggering amount of government-subsidized loans. Making matters worse, these students dump this funding not in profitable coursework like business or accounting, medicine or science, but in studying transvestite drama queens, lewd comedies, and … Read more
When Satan, in Milton’s Paradise Lost, insinuates himself into the garden of Eden, he encounters a perfect riot of beauty: lush grapevines hanging over grottoes and heavy with fruit, grassy meadows full of browsing cattle and sheep, streams splashing their way over the rocks, and flowers literally pouring forth at the bidding not of dainty … Read more