Can we fail to see the significance of Hamlet’s last words, “the rest is silence,” uttered immediately before Horatio’s prayer from the Requiem Mass? Since "requiem" means “rest” in Latin, can we avoid the suspicion that Shakespeare is alluding to the “something rotten” in the state of England which has silenced the Requiem Mass and [...]
Both John Paul II and T.S. Eliot give people something to hope for: St. John Paul speaks of a new springtime on the horizon signaling the emergence of a culture of life, and Eliot ends “The Waste Land” on a hopeful, if cryptic, note. We are all familiar with Saint John Paul II’s description of [...]
The issue of women’s ordination is one comparatively minor aspect of the much larger issue of our times: the destruction and distortion of human sexuality and ultimately the destruction and distortion of the human race itself. The ordination of women in the Church of England was the catalyst for my conversion to the Catholic Church [...]
"How seldom, friend! a good great man inherits Honour or wealth with all his worth and pains! It sounds like stories from the land of spirits If any man obtain that which he merits Or any merit that which he obtains." REPLY TO THE ABOVE For shame, dear friend, renounce this canting strain! What would'st [...]
As long as the great powers accept the moral duty of changing an unjust status quo even if it means sacrifice to them, just so long will there be peace. The State in Catholic Thought, by Heinrich A. Rommen, introduction by Bruce Frohnen (Cluny Media, 770 pages) There is no possible evasion of the general principle that [...]
What was the point of the USCCB’s “Eucharistic Revival”? Was it to end up with more Catholics who could correctly answer online polls regarding Catholic doctrine? Checking the right Catholic box? While that may have been a laudable endeavor—after all, it is a good thing to know basic Catholic doctrine—that would not have gotten to [...]
Russell Kirk is best described as a cheerful malcontent: ever aware that we are peering over the brink into a gulf of dissolution, yet filled with wonder and gratitude at the fact that "you and I are moral beings meant to accomplish something good, in a small way or a big, in this temporal world." [...]
Russell Amos Augustine Kirk is one of America’s foremost and most important thinkers, especially in the desiccated and mutilated 20th century, an era of horrific inhumanities and incessant blood-letting. Kirk stood for a more humane age that valued the dignity and uniqueness of each human person and that unabashedly sought the good, the true, and [...]
Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie ;;;fot. The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales were canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970. Although they laid down their lives for the Faith over a period of almost 150 years, the first being executed under Henry VIII in 1535 and the last under Charles II in 1679, very [...]
During my years of teaching, I have frequently admonished students with this deeply held conviction. If you can find a cultural critic or essayist that you enjoy, and he or she also happens to write fiction—read it. While Russell Kirk (1918-94) is best known as one of the founding fathers of post-World War II conservatism, [...]
In The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot displays the dark and depraved qualities of humanity. These qualities are especially prevalent in “The Fire Sermon,” where society has fallen victim to sexual immorality and corruption. Due to this subject matter, scholars conclude that Eliot is pessimistic about the future of Western Civilization, but this point of view [...]
Rouget de Lisle sings la Marseillaise for the first time, painted by Isidore Pils Perhaps the greatest of national anthems is France's "La Marseillaise," composed in 1792 by French officer Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, and arranged by Hector Berlioz for voices and orchestra in 1830. But in addition to the official anthems [...]
The upcoming presidential election will determine the next leader of the nation and representative of America to the world. Election Day offers the prospect for a new voice and a new option. The American Solidarity Party fits that description. Its principles and public policy are in quest for the common good. Its political approach, emphasizing [...]
Popular culture is awash with the horror genre. Television shows, video games, movies and literature on the occult gush forth seeming to make the ironic point that the more our society becomes scientifically secular the more appetite there is for the supernatural. It seems impossible to avoid the tsunami of paranormal investigators, zombies, vampires and [...]