Fribourg is a small town on the border between French and German Switzerland. A visitor would not be exaggerating if he claimed that there was a church on almost every street corner. In that part of the world, it is not unusual to see so many churches. What did catch my attention, however, was St. … Read more
The 20th, worst of centuries — if you reckon such things by as blunt an instrument as the number of civilians murdered by their own governments — was bloodied by that deadliest of things: bad philosophy. The intellectual errors of previous centuries had festered slowly in thick French and German books, still restrained by the … Read more
When asked my politics, I sometimes say, “Papal Insurrectionist.” In the classic Catholic novel Dawn of All, by Robert Hugh Benson, I get my wish. Here is a future wherein the world (or at least Europe and the Americas and increasing parts of Asia and elsewhere) has come to be “really and intelligently Christian.” And … Read more
When do you know it’s over? When do you know that civilization has collapsed inwardly to such an irreparable extent that the next stop is barbarism? When is that Weimar moment? Certainly, the legalization of abortion was one such moment, as barbarism is defined as the inability or unwillingness to recognize another person as a … Read more
Whether or not BP finally manages to seal the well in the Gulf of Mexico, putting an end to the millions of gallons of oil that have already spilled into the ocean, there’s a much greater question at stake. To be sure, debates about social and political economy will continue: How should federal and local … Read more
The purpose of higher education is the pursuit of truth, and throughout history men and women have devoted their lives to it. One such man was Mohandas Gandhi. Born in 1869, the son of uneducated parents, he was a mediocre student and a self-described coward who feared ghosts — into adulthood, he slept with a … Read more
There is much to catch up on for your summer listening pleasure. Faithful readers will recall how often I choose the Classical period for musical refreshment. And so it is again with the Symphonies Op. 3, Nos. 1-4 of Franz Ignaz Beck (1734-1809) on a new budget Naxos release (8.570799). I seemed to recall an … Read more
You are cordially invited to join the board, staff, writers and friends of InsideCatholic in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, September 16, for our 15th Annual Partnership Dinner & Dance. This year, we’ll be honoring Bishop Robert F. Vasa, D.D., of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon. In an era of lukewarm, go-along-to-get-along prelates, Bishop Vasa … Read more
Just as Catholic parishes and schools sigh with relief that the sex-abuse crisis appears to be under control, a new sexual predator is emerging, preying on Catholic teenage boys in schools across the country. This new predator is younger, gentler in appearance, nearer in size and age to the young male victims, and enjoys an … Read more
As hard as it is to express the truths about abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research to Democrats, it can be even harder to talk about homosexuality. Many people wrongly equate opposition to same-sex marriage with opposition to racial equality during the civil-rights movement, applying the emotional power of race issues to homosexuality. The … Read more
When Pope Benedict deplanes in Great Britain, he should probably wear a gas mask, and keep it on all through his visit. Sure, it might mar his public appearances, making the Vicar of Christ seem even more alien than he already does, on an island whose sense of national identity was formed in large part … Read more
Few saints are remembered in art, but those who are tend to appear with frequency. In their representations, these holy figures have come to be associated with some characteristic symbols… St. Peter with the keys Jesus gave him, St. Paul with the sword that killed him, and so on. In this piece, I’ve focused on … Read more
One wonders, did the Romans (the old pagan Romans) know that they were done for? I am thinking of the third and fourth centuries, when the markers of civilizational decline were all around them, and yet life went on. That famous Goth Alaric had not yet trashed the Eternal City, nor Attila shaken it with … Read more
I’m old enough to remember three channels on our black-and-white TV, which was topped with rabbit ears. Those were the days when neighbors naughtily listened in to conversations on the “party line,” and the length of a long-distance phone call had to be carefully measured using the second hand on a wind-up clock. I’ve also … Read more
Imagine one body with two heads. The twin giants of the Catholic literary revival of the early 20th century, G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, were so much associated in the eyes of the reading public that they together became the butt of the caricaturist’s humor and the satirist’s wit. Most famously, George Bernard Shaw, in … Read more
“You see, I am not a Christian,” said the young man at lunch, chilling the conversation in an instant. He was exceptionally good looking, and obviously intelligent, but also obviously sad. His father, a former Protestant minister who was essentially driven out of his church for his faithfulness to the Scriptural directives regarding human sexuality, … Read more
With the blackouts and bleak uncertainty about the fortunes of war, the days before Christmas were dark. The death of Rev. Vladimir Ledochowski, the “Black Pope,” on December 13 somberly marked a period of tremendous growth for the Society of Jesus, whose general he had been since 1915. Monuments to his service included new buildings … Read more
I taught for a while in Paris and, after knocking off work, would walk down the rue des Écoles, past the College de France, past the statue of Joachim du Bellay, to the Cinéma Henri Langois — the best repertory cinema I know — to see a Western. I took my seat in the dark … Read more
This year marks the centenary of G. K. Chesterton’s What’s Wrong with the World. The book continues to inspire and surprise with its prophetic insights on issues from economics and property, to its bracing defense of the “wildness of domesticity.” And what is wrong with the world for Chesterton? “What is wrong with the … Read more
Sixty years ago, Catholicism — for the first time — stood at the center of American literature. Katherine Anne Porter, Flannery O’Connor, J. F. Powers, Pietro di Donato, and Mary McCarthy represented the front rank of contemporary fiction. Meanwhile poets like John Berryman, Allen Tate, Robert Lowell, John Frederick Nims, and Robert Fitzgerald became the … Read more
