“He’s out of touch as he can be,
Now filling up the Holy See
With rabble-rousers, populists,
With throngs of half-baked dogmatists;
Who make us weep, or maybe laugh,
Who cannot read a simple graph,
Who can’t perceive the bottom line,
Who deign to cavil, moan and whine;
Far too unlettered to ensure
That we stay rich to feed the poor!
“As if pronouncements from on high
Could change the order, bye and bye!
As if he plans some grand repast
As last come first and first go last!
He dares demand that we should bow
Just because he rules—for now!
He’s out of touch as he could be,
That radical from Galilee;
We’ll need good lawyers, and a plan,
If we’ll impeach the Son of Man.”
We hope you will join us in The Imaginative Conservative community. The Imaginative Conservative is an on-line journal for those who seek the True, the Good and the Beautiful. We address culture, liberal learning, politics, political economy, literature, the arts and the American Republic in the tradition of Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Edmund Burke, Irving Babbitt, Paul Elmer More, Wilhelm Roepke, Robert Nisbet, M.E. Bradford, Eric Voegelin, Christopher Dawson and other leaders of Imaginative Conservatism (Visit our Bookstore to find books by/about these men).
We address a wide variety of major issues including: What is the essence of conservatism? What was the role of faith in the American Founding? Is liberal learning still possible in the modern academy? Should conservatives and libertarians be allies? What is the proper role for the American Republic in spreading ordered liberty to other cultures/nations?
We have a great appreciation for the thought of Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Irving Babbitt and Christopher Dawson, among other imaginative conservatives. However, some of us look at the state of Western culture and the American Republic and see a huge dark cloud which seems ready to unleash a storm that may well wash away what we most treasure of our inherited ways. Others focus on the silver lining which may be found in the next generation of traditional conservatives who have been inspired by Dr. Kirk and his like. We hope that The Imaginative Conservative answers T.S. Eliot’s call to “redeem the time, redeem the dream.”
A pope may, as the worn cliché puts it, reach out, make his presence known, exert a moral authority, and engage in a civilized manner appropriate to the Hole See.
On the other hand he should be a tad more circumspect in his choices of issues, bearing in mind the historic authority of the Papacy and the millennia that have graced the Vatican.
Cuba, the Castros ? Was it a slow day in Rome?