What is true of architecture, art, and music is equally true of literature. Throughout the history of Christendom, great literature has paid homage to sacred liturgy and the sacraments. Author's Note: On the evening of Wednesday, September 25 I was honoured to give the keynote address at the opening of the annual conference of the [...]
Distributism is the only practical solution to the problem of rampant corporatism and the globalism which is its inevitable consequence. Next time we raise a glass of craft-brewed ale, we should not merely enjoy its flavor, we should also raise a toast to the political and economic freedom that it represents. Some time ago I [...]
When doctors have become dealers in death, we need to sing the praises of those noble physicians who have taken a courageous stand for the culture of life. Perhaps there is no better test of the health of a culture than the way that it treats its children. The Canaanites sacrificed their own infants to Moloch; [...]
Newman’s conversion in 1845, sixteen years after Catholic Emancipation and five years before the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England, heralded the birth of a Revival which would see the resurrection of the Faith in the English-speaking world. In September 2010, I was honoured to be invited to serve as an official commentator on [...]
Literature is important because it takes us beyond the facts to the truth. It shows us who we are as human beings and as human persons. We could go even further by insisting that literature is not merely important but necessary. Without literature or, more specifically, without the ability to see literarily, we will be [...]
Wilhelm Röpke developed what was called “humane economics,” which placed the dignity of the human person at the core of economic thought, theory, and practice. Wilhelm Röpke In August 1938, as the world teetered on the brink of a second World War, only twenty years after the ending of the previous global conflagration, a [...]
Who are the "Secret Seven" poets who have been sadly forgotten and unjustly neglected, all but one of whom were converts to Catholicism and all of whom everyone should know? It is not often that the name of Enid Blyton, the bestselling children’s author, is mentioned in the same breath or the same sentence as literary [...]
It’s not often that one experiences the exhilarating shock and overwhelming satisfaction of discovering a new classic. When one does, it is only right that such satisfaction and exhilaration should be shared with others. It is, therefore, without the least hesitation that I recommend Michael Kent's "The Mass of Brother Michel." The Mass of Brother [...]
Bartolomé de Las Casas is an unsung hero who wanted to convert the pagan Native Americans to Christ as well as stop the sinful aspects of the European conquest of the New World. Ever since the advent of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s myth of the “noble savage” in the eighteenth century, there has been a tendency to idealize [...]
Concluding the quest for the ideal classical literature curriculum, we find ourselves entering the senior year and, simultaneously, entering the period of modernity. The freshmen had been immersed in pre-Christian Greece and Rome, the sophomores in the Christian Middle Ages, and the juniors in the early modern period with William Shakespeare. Now, as students enter [...]
One of the most egregious examples of the dissemination of the false narrative of fake history is the bias and inaccuracy of the “official” history of England since the time of the Reformation. William Cobbett We live in an age when fake news is rampant. Yet fake news is nothing new. It’s been [...]
The seven pillars of Western Civilization are the edifying edifices which tower over the landscape of the centuries as a fortress of faith and a beacon of reason. Islam has served throughout the centuries as an outside force which has repeatedly laid siege to the fortress, seeking its overthrow. Several weeks ago I wrote an [...]
Those who fail to share my profound admiration for William Shakespeare will no doubt query my apparent obsession with one author to the exclusion of all others, as I propose an ideal classical curriculum for the freshman and sophomore years of high school. In last week’s essay I presented the texts that I would include [...]
Pelagius of Asturias was a warrior of Christendom who is revered by the Catholics of Spain but is largely unknown to the wider world. One of the most enchanting places in the whole of Christendom is Covadonga in the Asturias region of northern Spain. The visitor, on approaching it for the first time, could easily imagine [...]