There is little doubt that Dvořák’s "New World Symphony" will be performed across the United States as part of next year’s celebrations to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Perhaps we might hope and pray that the "Te Deum" that he composed to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the [...]
In the long term, the hope is for the Gregory the Great Institute to become a major contributor to the “great conversation,” bringing the wisdom of Christendom to Canada’s beleaguered and floundering culture. We live in exciting times. As a native-born Englishman, I rejoice at the news that St. John Henry Newman is soon to [...]
I would say that taking idioms or gaining inspiration from past works does not constitute a continuum, i.e. tradition, if the intention is to put their integrity (their beauty) at the service of disintegration (ugliness). A correct term for such taking from the tradition would be vandalism. “Charles,” said Cordelia, “Modern Art is all bosh, [...]
Uruguay’s secular culture shuns Catholicism, yet heroes like Saint Anna Maria Rubatto and convert Alberto Methol Ferré defy the “libertine atheist” tide. A survey of the presence of the Catholic Church in South America will invariably focus on the largest nations, Brazil and Argentina, with reference also to countries such as Peru, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, and [...]
All great literature, in poetry and prose, is part of the great conversation which has animated Western civilization for almost three thousand years. Anything purporting to be literature which owes nothing to this great conversation is rootless and meaningless. It is not worth reading because it was not worth writing. It has nothing to say. [...]
Why is seeing "Pride and Prejudice" as Jane Austen saw it so important? The answer is simple enough. She knows the work better than anyone else. Jane Austen might be the greatest of all women novelists. Certainly, there are few others who can reasonably be said to deserve such an accolade. One thinks perhaps of [...]
For the past quarter of a century I’ve been honoured to edit the St. Austin Review, popularly known as the StAR, a Catholic cultural journal, published six times a year. The StAR was launched in September 2001, the month of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. It appeared in the midst of that darkest of months as [...]
A look at four more unsung heroes from the Australian continent, including the great Frank Sheed! In the previous essay in this series, we focused on two heroic Australian Catholics who witnessed to the Faith in their defense of the dignity of the human person. In this chapter, we will celebrate four other Australians whose heroism [...]
Between the potency and the existence… falls the Shadow. These words of T. S. Eliot always come to mind whenever I find myself reading works in translation. The sad fact is that the pure potency of the original work in its original language is lost in its translation to another tongue. And yet, for those [...]
The culture of death that the government of the UK has unleashed on its own people is all so diabolically ugly that it has something of the character of the caricature. It has the grimness of the grimace of a grotesque gargoyle. There was something darkly comical about the recent revelation that the grandfather of [...]
***** Please join us by making your donation today in celebration of our 15th anniversary. Every contribution—whether $1500, $150, or $15—joins with our labor and prayer to restore the best of Christendom. —W. Winston Elliott, Publisher ***** An Electronic Inklings by Bradley Birzer I remember it well. Fifteen years ago, on a hot, humid summer afternoon [...]
John Plunkett defended the dignity of the natives of Australia; Caroline Chisholm defended the dignity of vulnerable immigrants to Australia. In doing so, they offer a living witness to the Lord’s commandment that we love our neighbors. Long after European adventurers had first sailed into the mystic West to discover the New World of the Americas, [...]
I have sought since my conversion to use the gifts that God has given me to glorify Him and to bring souls to Him, in contrast to the way that I had previously used those same gifts to glorify hatred and to lead souls astray. I’m in receipt of correspondence from a young woman, received [...]
Why, one wonders, was Hilaire Belloc so wrong about World War One when he was so right about so many other things? The trouble with satire is that it is topical. It is a child of its time. It is similar to a fad or a fashion. It is very up to date. And the [...]