Paris Is No Stranger to Sacrilege
The Neo-paganism evident in the expensive show put on for the opening of the Olympics was just another example in a long history of official French ultra-secularist de-Christianization.
They Spat on My Wife Last Saturday in Paris
We had spent the morning with our children at the magnificent Sacré-Cœur Basilica, where we attended Mass. Then we went for a long walk in Père Lachaise, the remarkable cemetery where, among others, are buried Chopin and Jim Morrison. We visited both of their graves. After a very long and blistering hot morning, we boarded … Read more
To Resurrect Notre Dame Is a Work of Faith
This Monday, the world watched as the Notre Dame Cathedral, the magnificent symbol of Paris, of France, and of the Catholic Church, was engulfed in flames. People watched from the streets and on screens across the world in stunned disbelief. Parisians gathered in the streets gasped as the flames and smoke rose to the heavens … Read more
Restore Notre Dame as the Spiritual Center of Paris
Notre Dame brûle! (“Our Lady is burning!”) News flashes and sirens spread this horrible news Monday night at the start of Holy Week 2019. One of the most beautiful and iconic cathedrals in the world, visited by more people than any other monument in Europe or the world, was engulfed in flames during the most … Read more
No-Go Zones of the Mind
According to a report in the Daily Mail, there are more Muslim than Christian children in Birmingham, England’s second largest city. The same is true in a number of other large and mid-size cities—in Luton, Leicester, Bradford, and Slough. At least three boroughs in London have more Muslim than Christian children, including Tower Hamlets, which … Read more
Of Human Dignity and Shoes
For most of you this weekend contains a date you’ll never forget, along the lines of September 11, or December 7 — anniversaries of profound wounds to our country as a whole, even if we didn’t lose a relative in those surprise attacks or the wars that ensued. For millions of Americans, however, January 22 … Read more
Hope Flies on the Ascalon
The Avro York LV 633 “Ascalon” was an air transport developed in 1942, somewhat bulky in appearance with wings mounted high in the fuselage. It was Churchill’s favorite flight model, with enough space for a conference room. The name “Ascalon” was the traditional name for the lance used by St. George to slay the dragon, … Read more
A Love Letter to Capitalism?
So here I am in the Holy City for a week, to attend a family wedding and restore my shattered nerves. Too many months spent teaching Great Books in rural New Hampshire is enough to reduce a civilized man to a bag of broken glass, and I need at least a week of taking subways … Read more
The Constant Threat of the Miraculous
For the modern informed Catholic, the miraculous and the holy do not necessarily go hand in hand. Among many of the devout, confusion often exists as to whether miracles are real, whether they are from God or from somewhere else, and whether questionable people are profiting from them. In our time, places like Medjugorje have … Read more
Searching for Holiness and Glory
It has fallen to my lot recently to teach classics in a small high school not far from my house that offers courses for homeschooled students. Most of them come from Christian households, so one may take it for granted in the classroom that traditional moral values are in place. This is convenient in an … Read more
Why George Orwell Was Pro-Life
More than three decades after the legalization of abortion, the story line has barely changed. Granted, technology, especially the increasing sophistication of ultrasound, is altering the debate. But if some disinterested screenwriter right now were to turn the script into a movie, what would it most closely resemble? I’d put my money on Inherit the … Read more
Universities: Who Needs ‘Em?
Normally, I would not question the wisdom of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, especially when backed by the general disposition of the Church and specific, solid papal bulls. I do not doubt that the founders of the universities at Bologna, Paris, Oxford, Salamanca, and so forth meant well. But in light of the experience of … Read more
A Movie About the “Father-Son Business”
To my eye, nothing is more powerful in films than the depiction of the love parents have for their children. Sometimes this love pops up in unexpected cinematic places. Unable to sleep this morning, still jet-lagged from my trip to the Holy Land, I watched what many consider to be Wim Wender’s masterpiece, “Paris, Texas.” … Read more
An American Tragedy
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
She Is Black, but She Is Beautiful
When Dante rises with his guide Beatrice to the circle of the lovers, symbolized in Paradise by the planet Venus, he is told that the most brilliant and most deeply blessed of all the souls in that realm is Rahab, the harlot of Jerusalem who housed Joshua’s spies and assisted the children of Israel in … Read more
1942: Just Because You’re Paranoid
A September article in De Misthoorn, a Dutch Nazi Journal, scorned plutocracy as an enemy of National Socialism. The Nazi Party, representing the socialism of the masses, declared itself more hostile to capitalism than to Marxism, because the latter was based on “sounder principles.” Nonetheless, Bolshevism in the Soviet Union was collapsing under the hammer … Read more
Appalachian Gothic
In his powerful novel Serena, Ron Rash offers a haunting depiction of greed, inhumanity, and single-minded ambition. Put in more stark terms, he writes about the force of evil. Set in the Appalachians of Western North Carolina during the Great Depression, the book tells the story of a logging company owner named Pemberton and … Read more
Bastille Day: Baptism by Blood
Yesterday probably passed without much fanfare in your home, but July 14 is a day I usually try to commemorate. Not because I carry a single drop of French blood (more’s the pity — I’d be proud to be a cousin of Joan of Arc and François Mauriac). No, it’s because I think Bastille Day … Read more
Should the United Nations Control the Internet?
This past November, the United Nations sponsored a meeting in Rio de Janeiro with about 1,700 participants from some 90 countries to consider the future direction of the Internet. The most serious issue they dealt with was supported by a group of nations that included China, Cuba, and Iran: Leaders from these countries are pressing … Read more