Tomasi di Lampedusa’s “The Leopard” provides invaluable insight into 19th-century Italian history while creating a compelling story, allowing readers to relive an unfamiliar age of revolution and a fading nobility. Time under quarantine has been an excuse to revisit a personal favorite book and to explore its history, controversy, and literary value. I can think [...]
Josef Weiger is called, as are not many, to speak of Mary—to speak of her from the depths of his heart, knowing well her greatness to be unique. He is called to speak of her in that sober recollection of Christian Truth which, as St. Teresa demands, shall picture our Lady’s life only as it [...]
The first Christians were called the “saints” because they tried, and so many of them succeeded, in living saintly lives. That this fact converted a vast numbers of pagans in such a short time is as historically undeniable as it is inexplicable to secular historians. St Paul insists that once we are baptised into Christ, [...]
The affair of Galileo was not played out in the atmosphere of inquisitorial terror that some writers have imagined; one cannot even say that the high ecclesiastical authorities posed systematically as enemies of scientific progress. How did the Church react in face of perils she could not ignore? The secular arm, whose aid she had [...]
Blessed Otto Neururer would be the first priest to be martyred by the Nazis but by no means the last. Caesar, like the poor, is always with us. So is Judas. And so are the disciples of Christ. The Tyrant, the Traitor, and the Martyr. These three types of men form the very threads from [...]
Benedict XVI left us with countless theological insights. But he also left us with an important lesson about the very foundations of democratic society and culture that we often take for granted. The recent death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us of an essential and historic connection between religion and Western civilization. Religious belief and [...]
The Ancient Serpent had oft-times crawled into the sacred precincts of Holy Church since his first entry. However, this time his havoc would strike a thousand blows to the Mystical Body of Christ. St. Pope Pius X named the serpent: Modernism. At the beginning of time a snake slithered into a Garden called Eden. He entered [...]
On May 7, 1945, the German High Command surrendered to the Allies, bringing the war in Europe to an end. The following day was celebrated as Victory in Europe, or V-E, Day. On May 8, General Dwight D. Eisenhower issued a Victory Order of the Day, which read in part: “The crusade on which we [...]
Why did St. Augustine write "The City of God"? Why should it continue to compel our attention today? It was the one project St. Augustine prized above all others and would spend fourteen years of his life putting it all together: The City of God. He finished the last of the twenty-two books in the year 426, [...]
With the papal conclave on the horizon, the issues of synodality and hierarchy have once again come to the fore, with many questioning the value and relevance of a hierarchical church. The place of synodality in the Church is an open question, but one thing is certain: we need to embrace hierarchy. In fact, doing [...]
Joel Coen’s "The Tragedy of Macbeth" reminds us at a visceral level that the supernatural and the natural worlds are interwoven in a matrix of good and evil. When Macbeth dabbles in the occult, he lets loose the lords of darkness. A stark, new cinematic take on Macbeth is Joel Coen’s 2021 adaptation The Tragedy [...]
Faith must have its physical and visual expression. The return of the altar rail is a refreshing and sublime response to a distorted vision of the Church. It reintroduces the traditional teachings of the Church with awe and wonder, delighting the worshiper and resurrecting fervor for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. In churches across [...]
The sacred College of Cardinals during the General Congregation of Monday, April 28th last, has set the date for the beginning of the conclave: May 7, 2025. Given the gravity of the situation, I ask that those who will complete the Novena on May 5th next, immediately begin a second Novena, continuing to pray the [...]
Work is given to man principally as a gift, as a particular way to commune, so to speak, with God, by imitating his own absolute creativity, his perfect work. In an address to the “ministers of the world of culture,” given in 2008, Benedict XVI recalled the central role monasteries played in the development of Europe: [...]