In this issue, we continue the thoughts we began in «Ad Rem» N° 81. Originally, I thought I could put down some worthwhile considerations on this topic in two editions of the Ad Rem, but I find that there is … Continue reading
Category: «Ad Rem» A Fortnightly Email Message from the Prior
«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.
An Alternative American Culture I
Mental pictures can help in illustrating an important point. The reader will excuse me, I hope, if I begin with a mental picture that is not the most pleasant.
The Power of Catholic Example
Our conference now recently behind us, we breathe a brief sigh of relief before IHM School’s annual Festival, followed by the new school year, and, for me, the commencement of some travel plans on behalf of our community’s apostolate. The … Continue reading
Robust Catholicism, Fiddles, and Berries
Here at the monastery in Richmond, Dr. Maike Hickson, Joseph Topalian, and Third Order Prefect, Brother John Marie Vianney, M.I.C.M., Tert. gave very inspiring talks on their respective topics. Mrs. Hickson, with her husband and their new born, Isabella Maria, in the audience, whetted the listeners’ appetites for good Catholic literature. Mr. Topalian provided a fascinating tour of his own eventful life, filled with adventure and challenge, in the navy during World War II, in an eastern-rite seminary, and as a Catholic Armenian in America. Continue reading
Hate Crimes and the Crisis of Faith
This week, two news items attracted my attention. It is hard not to see a connection between the two. The first details the persecution of a pro-life, pro-family priest in Canada. The second was further coverage of the recent Pew … Continue reading
Is the Church a ‘Harlot’?
Alright, this is a very provocative title, I admit, but the name of the book about which I here write is even more so: Casta Meretrix, “The Chaste Whore,” An Essay on the Ecclesiology of St. Ambrose. This long and … Continue reading
Maryknoll before Marx: The Saintly Father Thomas Fredrick Price
Last week we heard that Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann was elected president of the UN general assembly. A Maryknoll priest, D’Escoto was suspended when he defied instructions from the Holy See in becoming foreign minister for the leftist Sandinista regime in … Continue reading
The Conversion of America to Catholicism: What’s the Holdup?
“The conversion of America to the one, true Church.” This is a stated part of our community’s charism, one that provokes reactions. Even omitting the frank “one, true” part, and rendering it the more nondescript “we wish to convert our … Continue reading
On the Feast of the Sacred Heart
God has told us that He loves us. In the Old Testament — a mere “shadow of the good things to come” (Heb. 10:1) — we are told of God’s love: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jer. … Continue reading
Father Demetrius Gallitzin: The Princely Apostle of Western Pennsylvania
Talk about incongruous. The man known as the “Apostle of the Alleghenies,” and the founder of the town of Loretto, Pennsylvania, was a Russian Prince reared in the Hague as the sophisticated, freethinking scion of a diplomatic noble family. Father … Continue reading
Beyond Dogma
“We’re beyond all that!” How common it is for a frustrated member of Christ’s faithful to hear that response from a progressivist cleric, catechist, or teacher in a nominally Catholic school. Just what we’re “beyond” is either some infallible formulation … Continue reading
Black Robes and Flat Heads and French, Oh My!
I’m reading Our Land and Our Lady, a superlative volume penned by the one-time collaborator of Father Feeney’s, Daniel Sargent. Mr. Sargent was a Yankee Blue Blood who converted to Catholicism and became a wonderful Catholic writer. Google Book Search … Continue reading
The Ascension and the Apostolate
Imagine having an aerial view of the Apostles just after the Ascension. The Eleven, accompanied by other disciples, were looking up to heaven, seeing nothing in the spring skies of Judea but a faint speck: the cloud upon which their … Continue reading
The Mystery of the Moral Virtues
In modern theology, biblical criticism, and other sacred sciences, articles are often entitled, “The Problem of X,” or “The X Problem,” as in “The Problem of Free Will” or “The Synoptic Problem.” Modern folk have the bad habit of looking … Continue reading
Doomed to Repeat It
British historian Arnold Toynbee once lamented that some of his fellows considered history to be “just one damned thing after another.” He thought that history is more than a conglomeration of isolated events; it is a thing governed by discernible … Continue reading
