The first and most fundamental principle, if one would undertake to alleviate the condition of the masses, must be the inviolability of private property. The main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected. The fact that God has given the earth for the use and enjoyment of the whole human race can [...]
Eager for legitimacy and filled with the lessons of history, Napoleon Bonaparte knew that the title of Emperor that he had just assumed would not be irrevocable in the eyes of his subjects until he had become “the Lord’s Anointed,” like the kings of France. Events since the Concordat had unrolled an endless carpet of [...]
Last Thursday, all of the Dominican student brothers here at the House of Studies jammed together to watch the reveal of a new pope. We were not alone. The whole world trained its eyes on a balcony in Rome. And after some waiting—and some more waiting—there emerged Leo XIV, the 267th Pope, the Successor of [...]
Both instructive and persuasive, Pope Leo XIII"s encyclicals are valuable reminders that the triumph of secularism, materialism, relativism, is by no means inevitable. Pope Leo XIII was a vibrant and courageous intellectual with a dedication to strengthening the Church in its relationships with the outside world. As his predecessor, Pope Pius IX, had hoped, Leo’s [...]