This Lent finds me in rather a saddened frame of mind — perhaps appropriate to the season. Bishop David O’Connell, an auxiliary bishop of my home diocese, Los Angeles, has just been shot dead. Two online friends whom I have … Continue reading
Author Archives: Charles A. Coulombe
The New Year: 1923 Versus 2023
Despite December 25th having passed, the season is still very much with us — and even secular folk usually keep up their trees and so forth until New Year’s Day. But what a difference for most of that week makes! … Continue reading
The Long Defeat: Christendom and Its Defenders, 1789 to the Present. Part 6: France
Since it was in France, “the Oldest Daughter of the Church,” that the Revolution began in 1789, it should be no surprise that it was in France that the Counter-Revolution began. In the Vendee, Brittany, Normandy, Auvergne, and throughout the … Continue reading
The Long Defeat: Christendom and Its Defenders, 1789 to the Present. Part 5: Italy
When the French Revolution broke out, the Italian Peninsula was divided among several rulers. Piedmont and Sardinia were the domain of the ancient House of Savoy, as a Kingdom named after the large island. But Sardinia was not the Savoys’ … Continue reading
The Long Defeat: Christendom and Its Defenders, 1789 to the Present. Part 4: The ‘Other’ Empire
Together with Austria, Slovenia, and Czechia, what is now Germany made up the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire, which — as we have seen — was for a long time ruled by the Habsburgs. Unlike their hereditary domains, most … Continue reading
The Long Defeat: Christendom and Its Defenders, 1789 to the Present. Part 3: The Eagle Has Two Heads
As we saw in our last instalment, the House of Habsburg carried on the traditions of the Holy Roman Empire into the 20th century, via the relatively new political construction called Austria-Hungary. Shepherded through the last half of the 19th … Continue reading
The Long Defeat: Christendom and Its Defenders, 1789 to the Present. Part 2: Defenders of Empire
Although we shall look at each Western nation in turn, it is important to remember that from the very beginning of Christendom － which we may date from Christ’s uniting the Davidic Kingship with the nascent Church on the first … Continue reading
The Long Defeat: Christendom and Its Defenders, 1789 to the Present. Part 1: To Begin with
“Actually I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’— though it contains (and in legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses … Continue reading
Catholic America’s Debt to Central Europe
When one thinks of the Catholic Church in America, he might be forgiven for thinking that it is mostly an Irish affair with a recent influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants. But in truth, every nation in the world has contributed its … Continue reading
What is Legitimism?
“Legitimism” is a very curious word that pops up from time in history. It has to deal with the questions fought — politically or militarily — in many countries over the past few centuries. Considering that it deals with the … Continue reading
Replacing the WASPS
Most of what we consider institutional America — its governmental, academic, cultural, and even religious — structures were created by the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Of course, there were many of Dutch, German, French Huguenot, Scandinavian, and other Northern European nationalities … Continue reading
What I’ll Be Missing in October
For the first time since 2013, I shall be missing the annual conference at St. Benedict Center. Alas, my attendance is a victim of the Corona-induced restrictions on travel. So, I have decided to tick off the things I’ll miss … Continue reading
The Religion of America IV: Can These Bones Live?
The events that have transpired since our last instalment have cast everything said thus far into exceedingly and uncomfortably stark relief. Across the United States, cities have burned, shops been looted, and the statues not merely of Confederate stalwarts but … Continue reading
The Religion of America III: Decline and Fall
As we have seen, the American Civic Religion was a disparate and amorphous thing — vaguely “Christian” as the Supreme Court decreed, and buttressed by the three pillars of the republic: the family, the church (of whatever kind), and the … Continue reading
The Religion of America II: Practitioners and Practise
Having looked at the tenets and history of our national cultus, we must now examine those who conducted it, its shrines, and its liturgies. We have in these pages examined the role of the President of the United States as … Continue reading
