David Carlin on the rising forces of the American Left: they begin as Democrats, then become anarchists, and, as history proves, will end up as totalitarians. Given the history of Communism in Russia, China, and elsewhere, we have good reason to fear that political leftism will have totalitarian tendencies, even when the leftists in question happen […]
A foible common to movers and shakers, whether clerical or lay, is a penchant for checking the index of a newly published book to see whether their names appear – and how often. I suspect that George Weigel’s newest book will provoke a good deal of surreptitious peeking. Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with […]
Matthew Hanley reports on the descent of medicine, including psychiatry, into a kind of criminal insanity about “gender issues.” It has turned healers into abusers. The return of football and crisp autumn air is welcome, even if being a fan of some teams (such as my San Francisco 49ers) requires an act of supernatural faith again […]
James V. Schall, S.J.: “Ism sins” wrongly seek to “purify” by identifying evil with unacceptable ideas, not with actions of individuals who are personally responsible for their actions. At first sight, we might think today that nobody talks of sins anymore. Indeed, in our era, much of what was once forbidden is permitted. Just what […]
Robert Royal urges Catholics who are orthodox in their beliefs to resist the political trend to treat the Faith as what amounts to a hate crime. When John F. Kennedy ran for president in 1960, anti-Catholicism, which the Harvard historian Arthur M. Schlesinger once called “the deepest bias in the history of the American people,” was […]
David Carlin writes that the new wave of intolerance, whether from the KKK or antifa, calls for a revival of our Judeo-Christian national religion. If not, get ready for the worst. Although the United States has never had an official religion, it has traditionally been, in an informal and unofficial way, a Christian nation; more specifically, […]
Brad Miner reports on the return of Christians to the Nineveh plains in Iraq. This “Dunkirk in reverse” is the result of the efforts of international aid agencies . . . and the grace of God. The day after Labor Day marks the return to school of millions of American kids. This year, God be praised, […]
Pope St. John Paul II, and Pope Francis on work and working men and women. Work is fundamental. The Church is convinced that work is a fundamental dimension of man’s existence on earth. She is confirmed in this conviction by considering the whole heritage of the many sciences devoted to man: anthropology, palaeontology, history, sociology, psychology and […]
R.J. Snell looks at our ominous future through the eyes of Father Julián Carrón, who sees cultural reform as pointless except in encounter with the risen Lord. The literary critic George Steiner describes our civilizational ennui as entailing “manifold processes of frustration, of cumulative désoeuvrement,” the lack of anything worthwhile to do. It’s an odd description for our busy era, full […]
Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky: A helping hand to the poor affirms life; failing to objectively challenge the human spirit effectively denies human dignity. There’s an old joke about President Calvin Coolidge, known to be a man of few words. He attends services one Sunday, while Mrs. Coolidge remains at the White House. On his return, the […]
Randall Smith on the explosion of college tuition costs. Education is very expensive, and it’s important for parents and students to know exactly what they’re paying for. It’s late August, and young adults across the country are headed to college, and parents across the country are writing large tuition checks. Americans worry incessantly about the inflation […]
James V. Schall, S.J. on football: if we eliminate it, as some say we should, we’ll lose a natural experience that leads us to appreciate what it means to speak of “higher things.” A recent column by Anne Killion, “More Ominous Signs for Football,” in the San Francisco Chronicle, ended this way: “One reader was much more […]
Robert Royal on the political manipulation of history. People suffering from cultural amnesia and self-deceived about their own moral purity cannot be allowed to set the terms of debate. Almost exactly a quarter-century ago, James A. Clifton, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin, called me after seeing an article I had written in First Things, […]
James Toner contends that our response to the barbarity around us is often one of moral stupefaction. A callus, the dictionary informs us, is “a thickened and hardened part of the skin or soft tissue, especially in an area that has been subjected to friction.” There we have a description of our contemporary moral condition. We […]
Matthew Hanley argues that tolerance of Islam can only go so far, and the limit must be Islam’s active anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism. Cold War anti-communist measures may guide us. What is to be done about the influx of Islam into the West – besides accepting carnage (most recently in Barcelona) as the “new normal”? Some prominent […]