March is a very Celtic month. St. David, patron of the Welsh opens the month on the first. Four days later comes St. Piran, Cornwall’s patron. On the 17th — as all the world knows — is St. Patrick, on … Continue reading
Category: History
Thoughts on Washington’s Birthday
Well, Washington’s birthday has come to us again. Despite being called “Presidents’ Day” in recent years and celebrated on the nearest Monday, February 22 is the day that the first president of the United States was born — and, not … Continue reading
Thoughts on Lincoln’s Birthday
Well, Lincoln’s birthday has come around again. In recent years it has been to a great extent effaced, being amalgamated with Washington’s as Presidents’ Day. But in my youth it was very much a grand occasion. This had been the … Continue reading
The Myth of the Medieval Tritone Ban
Was the musical interval known as the “tritone” really banned in the Middle Ages? Was it really seen as diabolus in musica (“the devil in music”) by the Catholics — mostly monks — responsible for our beautiful patrimony of Gregorian … Continue reading
‘Facts about Slavery Never Mentioned in School,’ by Dr. Thomas Sowell
This YouTube video of Thomas Sowell reading from his own book is embedded here on Catholicism.org because I have just interviewed Dr. Gracjan Kraszewski, author of the book, Catholic Confederates. Whenever there is talk of the Catholic Church in the … Continue reading
The Politics of Christmas
Once again, December is upon us, and so once again, the Christmas Wars. Once upon a time, in Fr. Feeney’s day, these were described by him thusly: “I do not know what Christmas in the United States is going to … Continue reading
From Colonial to Woke
A recent trip to New England, for the SBC Conference, no less, reminded me once more of the strange and mixed origins and influence of the Yankee States over the entire country. On the one hand, I once more revelled … Continue reading
An Act of State Terrorism, Part II
The subject of this historical article is always timely inasmuch as it touches upon moral matters that are germane to the just use of force in combat — that part of the Just War Doctrine known as “ius in bello.” Inasmuch … Continue reading
The Nakba and the Christians of Palestine: Important Background to Current Events
The two video documentaries below serve as an important background to the current tragic events in the Holy Land. The first is on the history of the Nakba (the “catastrophe,” i.e., the 1948 displacement of Palestinians); the second is on … Continue reading
Did the Machine Stop?
They have given us into the hand of new unhappy lords, Lords without anger or honour, who dare not carry their swords. They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes; They look at our labour and laughter … Continue reading
The Third Civil War
“Well, then, here we sit, an old, grey, withered, sour-visaged, threadbare sort of gentleman, erect enough, here in our solitude, but marked out by a depressed and distrustful mien abroad, as one conscious of a stigma upon his forehead, though … Continue reading
Dom Guéranger’s Essay: ‘The Christian Sense of History’
Mr. Chris De Vos, who is soon to make his Saint Benedict Center Conference debut with the talk, “Sacred History as Vital to a Catholic Worldview: Lessons from Catholic Notables of the 19th Century,” directs an apostolate called the Mary … Continue reading
The Jacobites Return
It is 3,016 miles — literally as the crow flies — from the battlefield of Culloden where the Jacobite cause went down to defeat in 1746, to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Strange to say, the open field … Continue reading
Today is ‘National New Hampshire Day’ and 2023 Marks a Catholic Milestone in the Granite State
This morning, thanks to the Crusade Channel, I learned that today is “National New Hampshire Day.” Really! As we here at Saint Benedict Center are into localism and we live here in the great Granite State, this is something to … Continue reading