«Ad Rem» is our Prior’s fortnightly email message offering news and commentary regarding the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Crusade of St. Benedict Center, and issues affecting the universal Church. Each number offers brief, ad rem (“to the point”) commentary on timely or otherwise important matters. Click here to subscribe to our email list and receive the «Ad Rem» each time it’s published.
Seven years ago, I published some “Suggested Lenten Penances” on Catholicism.org. Our website statistics tell me that they get looked at every year, right around the beginning of Lent. By the time readers receive this Ad Rem in their email … Continue reading
There is a sense of mounting intensity in the Church. Within the last ten days alone, the following has happened: Pope Francis and Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, signed a “Document on Human Fraternity,” which says that … Continue reading
If Heaven is where we hope to spend our eternity, it ought to be something that is on our minds here below. “For,” after all, “we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come,” … Continue reading
We were created for God’s glory. When man does not work for that glory — when he fails to see, to love, and to seek God in all things — a threefold division takes place. The first division is between … Continue reading
An article I came across recently quoted a very high-ranking churchman saying, not in so many words, that Martin Luther was right about the doctrine of Justification. It was alarming to see, though not entirely surprising in these days when … Continue reading
Who, and What, do we expect to come to us when our Advent is over? To put the question in His own words, “Whom [and What] do men say that the Son of man is?” (Matt. 16:13). Protestants often ask … Continue reading
Charles Dickens was a great literary genius. He had a gift for complicated plots, for colorful characters, and for emotionally evocative storytelling. As a social critic, he also penetrated into the unseemlier side of industrial capitalism, that Protestant beast that … Continue reading
The question that gives me the title for this piece is one I was recently asked, and was glad to answer, for it had occurred to me before, and provided me with some gratifying meditations both on gratitude (thanksgiving) and … Continue reading
This past weekend, Brother Joseph and I were at the Catholic Identity Conference in Weirton, West Virginia. This is the conference which has been described as a traditionalist “unite-the-clans” event. In that regard, as in many others, it did not … Continue reading
Not long ago, I was in an online controversy with a young woman who objected to something I wrote. We went back and forth a bit, but the discussion went nowhere fast. She was defending positions diametrically opposed to the … Continue reading
This Ad Rem is a “teaser.” It’s a section of the talk I will give in a couple of days at the Saint Benedict Center Conference. (If you are not coming, feel free to pre-order the CD’s and DVD’s of … Continue reading
The news keeps coming fast and furious. Some recent samples: While a prominent and highly favored pro-homosexual Jesuit attacks faithful Catholics as “unorthodox” for opposing the sodomite agenda, a priest who opposes that same agenda is hounded by his Archbishop … Continue reading
The recent revelations of depraved deeds committed by bishops and priests are evocative of different appropriate emotions. Anger would be the first of these. It is the irascible passion we experience in the presence of an evil we strive to … Continue reading
Justice, in its most foundational meaning, is “rendering to the other what is his due.” When the “other” is a fellow man or the State, there are three specific parts of justice that pertain: commutative justice, distributive justice, and legal … Continue reading
It is not my custom to write about the latest scandal. There are good reasons for this. The world is fallen and scandals abound, even in the best of times. To dwell on them risks losing sight of the good … Continue reading
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