Catholicism
The Mellifluous Doctor and Us
Most Catholics, even well-informed Catholics, if asked who were the great medieval saints would reply with a familiar list of names: Francis of Assisi, Dominic, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena. But one of the earliest among these great…
The God of the Philosophers and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
The French polymath Blaise Pascal wrote in his famous “memorial” about his “night of fire”: “The God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob – not of the philosophers and scholars.” We can understand this desire not to turn the personal God in…
Pope Leo XIV Inspires a Rebirth of Gregorian Chant
Leo XIV has done much in the first few months of his papacy to dispel damaging misconceptions about Gregorian chant rooted in ignorance of what Vatican II actually taught. When he stood on the loggia of St. Peter’s in his very first public…
Merriment from Another World – The Catholic Thing
A man with the dopiest face imaginable, always ready to break into a broad grin and a goofy laugh, is talking to Joe the Bartender about the only day he ever went to school. His name is Crazy Guggenheim. “The teacher, she asks me, Who wrote the…
A Cautionary Tale: the ‘French Malaise’
France, once the acknowledged cultural leader of the West, is experiencing what many French men and women describe as ‘La Malaise’ – the societal apprehension, unease, and disillusionment caused by a perceived sense of national decline and…
The Hidden Rose – The Catholic Thing
The dogma of Mary’s Assumption, celebrated on August 15, teaches that the Lord’s Mother was taken into Heaven, body and soul, since no decay should touch the body of her who bore the Messiah. Christians believe “in the resurrection of the body.”…
Kolbe as Witness – The Catholic Thing
How can it be that, simply from viewing a picture of someone, you can form a conviction that he is a saint? The conviction appears to be a mere intuition, but later you discover that it is well-grounded. So it was for me and Maximilian Kolbe.…
Follow the Science, Ignore the Cliff
Small books can carry big ideas. Simple but important ones. An obvious example, first published in hardback edition in 1948 with barely 190 pages, is Richard Weaver’s Ideas Have Consequences. It’s a little work of genius. The title says it…
The Vatican’s Hall of Constantine Restored
They say of Julius II (pope from 1502 to 1513) that he did not choose his papal name in honor of his illustrious predecessor Julius I of some 1150 years earlier, but because of his esteem for Julius Caesar (100-44 BC). Maybe, although the pope’s…
Dr. Royal’s: “How I Haven’t Stopped Worrying and Still Don’t Love the Bomb”
Is there any sane person on earth who loves nuclear bombs? As such? If so, I’ve never met one. And I’ve certainly never encountered any good argument for them, as such. Ronald Reagan, the American president whom I heard many Europeans back in…