Religiously, morally, politically, and even physically (thanks to its increasing obesity) our nation has been slouching towards Gommorah for many years now. We’ve made ourselves worthy subjects of the great big Nannie State that our own sloth and indifference have brought into being. And it’s getting worse. There is an increasingly alarming “fiscal crisis” that even the federal government is beginning to acknowledge might not go away; and that bureaucracy of bureaucracies in D.C. has been so reckless with taxpayer money that the Pentagon cannot account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds — a financial faux pas that beggars belief. What it lacks in efficiency, our central government makes up for in an increasing capacity for tyranny and hubris. Read More »

The word “pilgrim,” derived from the Latin peregrinum, conveys the idea of wandering over a distance, but it is not just aimless wandering. It is a journey with a purpose, and that purpose is to honor God.

Pilgrimage has a long history in the true religion. Once the temple was built at Jerusalem (ca. 957 B.C.), all Jewish men were obliged to present themselves at it for the three major feasts: Pesach (the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or Passover), Shavu’ot (the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost), and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles, or Festival of Ingathering), as per God’s ordinance in Deuteronomy 16:16-17. On their way to the Temple, they would sing the “pilgrim songs” (also called “songs of assent” or “gradual canticles”), namely, Psalms 119-133. To this day, these feasts are called, “Pilgrimage Festivals” by the Jews. Read More »

According to the UK’s Telegraph,”Researchers exploring the legend of Britain’s most famous Knight believe his stronghold of Camelot was built on the site of a recently discovered Roman amphitheatre in Chester.” If the researchers are correct in their conclusions, the “table” was not a table in the ordinary sense of the word, but a repurposed old Roman amphitheater that could fit over 1000 people. What led researchers to favor the Chester site were the ruins of a shrine to Christian martyrs inside it Read More »

[The Battleground: Syria and Palestine, the Seed Plot of Religion by Hilaire Belloc. Ignatius Press.]

Hilaire Belloc, one of my favorite authors, was exceedingly prolific. He wrote one hundred fifty three books of poetry, essays, history, religion, politics, and economics, as well as hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles. His life (1870-1953) was long and fascinating, and even had him serving for a time in the French army. He was, in fact, born in France of a French father and an Irish mother. Later, he moved to Britain and served in Parliament. A brilliant and witty Catholic, he was largely responsible for his friend G. K. Chesterton’s conversion to the Faith. Read More »

Because Innocent III was one of the three popes to define the doctrine of “no salvation outside the Church,” it would do well for all the friends of Saint Benedict Center to study the pontificate of this man whose papacy has been judged both by Church historians and secular scholars as one of the greatest in history. He reigned from AD 1198 until his death in 1216. His papacy ushered in the Thirteenth Century, which some Catholic Read More »

In reading this morning about the street fighting going on in Kingston, Jamaica, where battles between the police and drug dealers has left twenty-six civilians dead, plus thirty more between the gang members and police (if I am reading the report correctly), I came across the request of the Archbishop for all priests and religious to pray the traditional Saint Michael the Archangel prayer daily for an end to the violence. Read More »

Play-goers or movie-buffs might recall the end of this “prayer for the Tsar” offered impromptu by the Rabbi near the beginning of “Fiddler on the Roof”: “…far away from us!” The line reflects a popular anti-monarchist sentiment that scorns all crowned heads of state, including Russia’s own Caesar (whence the word Tsar or Csar originates). But the Romanovs, Russia’s royal family, were not what the Communist propaganda mill made them out to be, nor what our own anti-monarchic national prejudice might tend to believe. Read More »

In his article “Spain’s Crusade” of some years ago, Gary Potter briefly mentioned the Carlists “…without whose arms and sacrifices victory could well have eluded the Catholic, national side of the conflict. It would be desirable to speak of them not simply on account of their importance in the Crusade but because, except for the heroes of the Vendee in the 1790’s and the Cristeros in Mexico in the 1920’s and 30’s, no body of Catholics has struggled and fought against the Revolution, on the battlefield and off, more valiantly then they. Moreover, they still exist. The Carlists . . . remain a force in Spain and even among men in other lands.” Read More »

We are soon to publish an article on the Carlists of Spain. The video below provides a “warm up” for that later piece, and from an interesting point of view, as it concerns Carlist assistance to the Confederacy. What interests us in the Carlistas is primarily their social doctrine, that is, their Catholic polity. They were — and are still — anti-Enlightenment, Counter-Revolutionary Catholics, who, since 1833, defended the social reign of Jesus Christ, as well as the traditions of Spanish monarchy.

Here is how Gary Potter wrote of them in the article “Spain’s Crusade”:

“Deserving of mention also are the Carlists, without whose arms and sacrifices victory could well have eluded the Catholic, national side of the conflict. It would be desirable to speak of them not simply on account of their importance in the Crusade but because, except for the heroes of the Vendee in the 1790s and the Cristeros in Mexico in the 1920s and 30s, no body of Catholics has struggled and fought against the Revolution, on the battlefield and off, more valiantly than they. Moreover, they still exist. The Carlists, or the Traditionalist Communion (as their movement is formally known), remain a force in Spain and even among men in other lands.”

Although for about two thousand years inhabitants in the region affirmed that there was a huge boat on top of Mount Ararat, and pictures were taken through the ice glacier by explorers many times in the last century, this is the the most advanced discovery yet. What a prodigious time for this with the pope about to visit Turin and venerate the Holy Shroud of Jesus! I will post more on this as more information comes in.

CNA reports: “For more than 2,000 years, historical and eyewitnesses accounts tell us that there is an ancient boat on Mt. Ararat which survived a great flood and landed on the mountain,” said Muhsin Bulut, Cultural Ministries Director of Agri Province, at the press conference Sunday. “People believed that it is Noah’s Ark. I believe the team has finally located this ancient boat and I believe it is Noah’s Ark.” Read full report here with links.