Christopher Check has an enthusiastic review of “For Greater Glory” on the Crisis Magazine site. He has one major criticism of the film: its anachronistic talk of religious freedom. I think the lesson that Mr. Check offers here as an … Continue reading
Category: Arts and Culture
The Tree of Life: A Film Review
The subject here is a movie, one I think could be the most important made in my lifetime, at least in terms of cinema’s future. Its importance doesn’t make it a favorite nor even that I have especially enjoyed seeing … Continue reading
More About the Cristeros Movie Opening June 1 in the US
CatholicOnline: “This is an international story for the world,” said Academy Award® nominee Andy Garcia, who headlines an international cast in FOR GREATER GLORY. “It’s a story that needs to be told.” Garcia plays General Gorostieta, the retired military man … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
Cristero Movie with Star Cast Debuts in Mexico
CNA: The much anticipated movie “Cristiada,” which recounts the story of the Cristero war in Mexico during the religious persecution of the 1920s, was released in Mexico on April 20. “This movie is not only going to be entertaining, it … Continue reading
Nyuck, Nyuck, and a Whiff of Brimstone
In the vast wasteland known as American popular culture, every once in a while — actually, quite frequently — something truly infernal comes to the screen (or the tube, or the airwaves), and makes particularly hellish mockery of the good, … Continue reading
Recommended Film: Katyń
As a treat for Easter, the brothers watched the film Katyń, which recounts the horrible massacre of some 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia in the forest of Katyn, not far from the western Russian city of Smolensk. The film, directed … Continue reading
Monsignor Joseph Clifford Fenton’s Review of ‘The Leonard Feeney Omnibus’
THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW, Feb, 1944. THE LEONARD FEENEY OMNIBUS. A Collection of Prose and Verse Old and New. New York, Sheed and Ward, 1943. Pp. xiv + 399. $3.00.
Mirabile Mysterium, by Jacobus Gallus
The text comes from the Church’s sacred liturgy: it is the Benedictus antiphon at the office of Lauds for the Feast of the Circumcision. Learn about the composer here. Mirabile mysterium declaratur hodie, innovantur naturae; Deus homo factus est; id … Continue reading
Bob Jones, Jr. Loved Collecting Catholic Art But Hated the One True Church
Catholic Culture: Religion News Service has drawn attention to the major sacred art collection at Bob Jones University, the fundamentalist college in South Carolina that lifted its ban on interracial dating only in 2000. Read more here.
A Hymn to Our Lady by Edgar Allen Poe
I’d like to thank Dan Guenzel, a long-time friend of Saint Benedict Center, for sending this poem for us today.
A Kinder, Gentler Maccabee
Far be it from me to question Abraham Foxman’s right to complain about Mel Gibson’s latest film venture. This is something he has every right to do. In fact, it’s how he makes his living. But he might like to … Continue reading
Anti-Mexican Race Pride: An Insult to Our Lady
On the web site Taki’s Magazine, Charles Coulombe has a brief, thoughtful essay on the immigration question. In it, he summarizes the thinking of Archbishop José Gomez — his own Ordinary, since Coulombe resides in the L.A. Archdiocese. After touching … Continue reading
Hollywood Catholic Actor Wants Movie on Siege of Malta and the Knights of St. John
CNA reports: Hollywood actor Matt Marsden said that young Catholics need to get involved in movie-making and other artistic ventures if they want to change the culture. Full report is here.
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 … Continue reading