Author Archives: Gary Potter
Amid Barbarism’s Din: Less Music
The subject of the lines that follow is one about which I’ve written on this website before: the unmistakable and awful signs of a new barbarism rising from the ruins of what used to be Christian civilization. It is not entirely peripheral to our consideration of the subject to observe that one of the signs is that most Catholics today, including many traditional ones, seem … More →
Missing the Moment?
Soon after the HHS contraception mandate was handed down, the prior of Saint Benedict Center, Brother Andre Marie, posted on this website some lines about there having arisen “a teaching moment,” an opportunity for the bishops of the country to explain why Church teaching is opposed to the “evil” (Brother’s word) of contraception. Brother was correct. Such a moment doubtless had arisen, and contraception is … More →
Thoughts Triggered by the Firing of Pat Buchanan
Pat Buchanan was recently fired from MSNBC after a ten-year association. Pat and I worship at the same extraordinary-rite Sunday Mass in the nation’s capital, but I haven’t had a chance to speak to him since his firing. I have read a column he wrote about it. His contract was terminated when MSNBC buckled under pressure from groups outraged by his most recent book, Suicide … More →
Posted in Articles, Biography, Politics and Society 2 Comments
“Next”
My first thought when I saw in my e-mail one morning a few weeks ago that Sister Mary Bernadette had died: What would things be like at the Center now that she was gone? I wasn’t wondering what they would be like for me when next I was in Richmond. When I was there in October for the latest SBC conference, Sister no longer recognized … More →
The Advent of a New Dark Age?
Many years ago, when the Catholic magazine Triumph existed and I was one of its editors, Malcolm Muggeridge stopped by our Washington offices one day. Several of us joined him for drinks on the rooftop terrace of the nearby Washington Hotel.
Posted in Articles, Arts and Culture, Politics and Society 15 Comments
RIP Archduke Otto Von Habsburg
As has already been noted on the SBC website, Archduke Otto von Habsburg, who in 1916 became heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, has died. I’d like to offer a couple of additional thoughts. The Archduke passed away in his sleep at his home in Bavaria during the night of July 3-4. He was 98. He lived long enough to see his father, … More →
Posted in Articles, Biography, History, News 2 Comments
The Right on the Rise?
For better or worse, France has had a dominating intellectual and cultural influence throughout the West for a very long time. For most of the past couple of centuries, the influence has been for the worse. Many of the Enlightenment ideas that now shape our lives in society may have arisen first in England and Scotland, but it was in French that they were conveyed … More →
Posted in Articles, News, Politics and Society 4 Comments
A Presidential Inauguration 150 Years Ago
It was generally ignored, but this past February 18 was an important anniversary in American history. It was on that date 150 years ago that Jefferson Davis, former U.S. Senator and former U.S. Secretary of War, was inaugurated as the first President of the C.S.A., the Confederate States of America. Alas, he was also that nation’s only president. Four years after his inauguration the nation … More →
The Rescue in Copiapo
If there were many persons who didn’t watch on October 13 the television coverage from Chile of the rescue of the 33 miners who had been trapped below ground for more than two months, they missed some of the most soul-stirring moments anyone is ever likely to experience. It was also an opportunity to see what it’s like when the Faith is still a force … More →
The Case of Mel Gibson
“Put not your faith in princes,” Scripture exhorts us. In our day and age it might be added, “Put not your faith in celebrities.” I say that on account of the case of Mel Gibson. Back when his movie The Passion of the Christ was current a very great many Traditional Catholics went giddy, and not simply over the film. The way they talked about … More →
‘The Greatest That Ever Lived’ (On the Apotheosis of Michael Jackson)
Think of a civilization as a fruit. The interior of the fruit — its meat — consists of the ideas, principles and beliefs professed by the members of a society, and thence of the civilization of which that society is part. Throughout history until modern time, the ideas, principles and beliefs of all civilizations derived from religion. When societies in great parts of the world … More →
A Conversation with the President
(Note: When Mr. Potter sent me this piece for consideration, he said, “I can think of several reasons why you might decide not to post the piece I am attaching for your consideration. If you so decide, there’ll be no upset feelings at my end.” He’s a magnanimous gentleman, Gary Potter. Although some superficial folk will doubtless object to the remarks that follow as “pro-Obama” … More →
Is Evil a Problem?
On the Sunday after Easter readers of the Washington Post were shocked and saddened by a story on the paper’s front page. It concerned a family who lived in Middletown in the Maryland countryside about 50 miles outside D.C. The 34-year-old father of the family had killed his wife, their three young children and then himself. The bodies had been discovered on Saturday by the … More →
Miracle on 115th Street
The Church in the United States has always been predominately Irish as an institution. Even today, with Hispanics obviously bound to become the Catholic majority in the near future, she remains essentially Irish-American in character and spirit.
Posted in Articles, Holy Places, Miracles and Apparitions 1 Comment
