The majority of today’s Americans aren’t old enough to have an adult memory of the Vietnam War from its beginning in the 1960s to the Communists’ victory in 1975. However, most everybody is aware, even if it has never been … Continue reading
Author Archives: Gary Potter
God or Nothing
Our subject here is an important and inspiring book published earlier this year, God or Nothing. It resembles The Ratzinger Report, a record of conversations between a journalist and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI when the latter was still Prefect of … Continue reading
Forty Years After Franco’s Death
A young American male traveling in Spain in the early 1960s, as I was and did, would notice that women did not sunbathe topless on the country’s beaches the way many did on the French Riviera. There weren’t even any … Continue reading
Thoughts on Upcoming and Past Events
Perhaps you have noticed how some persons (not you and I, of course) project their besetting sins and failings onto others. A man who seduces other men’s wives will keep his own wife under veritable lock and key. A snoop … Continue reading
The Common Factor
A month ago the SBC website posted an article by me in which I wrote: “Money is not evil. We all need it. What is evil is putting it at the center of the life of the society and men … Continue reading
Money, the Immigration Problem, Islam
Although leftist propaganda has always portrayed it as the successful rising of peasants and the urban poor, and if the mob, incited by frustrated intellectuals, renegade priests and enthusiastic women, were in fact masters of the streets of Paris for … Continue reading
The Irish Referendum
Some may have hoped the outcome would be otherwise, but it is difficult to see how anyone could actually expect Irish voters to reject same-sex “marriage”. If there was a surprise about the outcome it was that the “Yes” votes … Continue reading
The Armenian Genocide
Since little media attention was paid in this country to the anniversary, most readers may be barely aware, if aware at all, that it was a hundred years ago last month that the rulers of Turkey in 1915-16 began a … Continue reading
Cui Bono?
War is terrible, especially in modern time when Christian standards that used to regulate its conduct are no longer observed. When it threatens it is desirable to ask: Cui bono? Who benefits? When the Prime Minister of Israel addressed the … Continue reading
Two Years of Francis
Two years ago this month Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope. I want to talk here about faith and to do so in the context of this anniversary. Before I turn to my subject there are some other things I want … Continue reading
Decline and Fall…and Rise?
When Austria was defeated by Prussia in a war in 1866 and political power and cultural dominance within greater Germany shifted from Vienna to Berlin, the people of Vienna tried to mask their true feeling of loss by acting gaily, … Continue reading
Restoration or Desecration?
On the Feast of All Saints, 1983, I worshipped at Mass in the Sistine Chapel with Pope St. John Paul II on the altar. Msgr. Alfons Stickler, the Austrian-born Vatican Librarian and champion of the Tridentine Mass and of Latin … Continue reading
Moi Aussi, Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie
Honore de Balzac, the great nineteenth-century French novelist whose chief work is the series of short stories and novels collectively known as The Human Comedy, wrote that “when the Revolution cut off the head of the King, it cut off … Continue reading
Alzheimer’s
A couple of months ago folks were in a dither about Ebola, especially folks who see themselves as the center of the universe, and in our day (or any other) that is too many. Now, there is nothing wrong with … Continue reading
Paying For What We Expect
Rich men find pleasure in owning yachts, race horses and sports teams. Pleasure is piled upon pleasure when a rich man can sell a team for many millions of dollars more than he paid knowing he is able to keep … Continue reading
