In 1980, just after I had met him for the first time, Father John Hardon, S.J. said something to me privately that also became more and more important in my own later life, especially in my growing understanding of our … Continue reading
Category: Articles
A Vindication of Pope Pius XII
A Vindication of Pope Pius XII — A Review of Catholics Confronting Hitler, the Catholic Church and the Nazis by Peter Bartley. Ignatius Press. 2016 In 1963 a vicious anti-Catholic play came upon the literary scene. Written by German Protestant … Continue reading
Getting Rid of Rotten Fruit
Question: What do Death Comes for the Archbishop, Ode to Joy and The Night Watch have in common? Answer: 1) They are all works of art. 2) They can all be identified by a person of culture who will also … Continue reading
Along the King’s Highway
I have done a great deal of traveling in the past few months: October saw me in Cleveland, Ohio, and New England; November brought me to the Hudson Valley of my birth and earliest years; and in February and March … Continue reading
Presumption as a Form of Laxity unto Spiritual Sloth
For many years it has been noticeable to me as a Roman Catholic layman that the deadly sin of presumption and the related sin of sloth are seldom mentioned, much less more deeply and even individually discussed. Consequently, neither is … Continue reading
March/April 2017 Mancipia
The March/April 2017 Mancipia is now posted (scroll down for PDF). Back issues of this newsletter are linked from our downloads page. If you would like to receive our bi-monthly newsletter via U.S. mail, please sign up to get it … Continue reading
A Managed Conflict Apparatus
Three essays written in the 1960s by the strategic-minded James Burnham – himself a former Trotskyite admired by Trotsky himself – will still help us to understand and counteract certain lesser known “weapons systems” that are non-kinetic , such as … Continue reading
The Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’
During the weeks since President Trump’s inauguration, Americans have witnessed the sorry spectacle of his opponents acting exactly the way they predicted his supporters might do if he lost in November: demonstrate unwillingness and even outright refusal to accept the … Continue reading
Making the Church More Visible
Editor’s Introduction: This is a brief excerpt from pages 148 to 152 of Hamish Fraser’s 1954 book, Fatal Star, which is sadly out of print. The name we’ve given it on our website is of our own making, but the text itself … Continue reading
The Slow Fruitfulness of His Heart of Mercy: L. Brent Bozell, Jr.
Through the prompt kindness of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, I recently received a gift copy of Daniel Kelly’s book that they had just published on L. Brent Bozell, Jr., entitled Living on Fire After at once reading the book, whose … Continue reading
Thoughts on the Sapphire Jubilee
As I write these words, it is February 6, 2017 — the Sapphire Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and her other Realms and Territories, Lord of Mann, Duke … Continue reading
Plato and Liberal Education
[Note: This article was originally published in From the Housetops in 1946.] I. What is Education Plato conceived education as an art of perfecting man. According to this view, education is possible because man is a perfectible being. Nobody ever … Continue reading
Near Occasions of Sanctity
On a dreary New Hampshire winter afternoon, as I was preparing myself for a philosophy discussion on the subject of Ontology by attentively taking in a recorded lecture by Brother Francis, I was given one of those moments of joy … Continue reading
Gallantry
In his most important book, Catholicism, Liberalism and Socialism, the great nineteenth-century Spanish Catholic political thinker Juan Donoso Cortes wrote: “Man cannot aspire to an impossible felicity in this obscure valley of our dark pilgrimage without losing the little happiness … Continue reading
The Language of Gesture
Your author dedicates this essay to his mentor and beloved friend, the valiant Baron Arnaud de Lassus, renowned leader of traditional Catholics in France, organizer of the Chartres Pilgrimage, editor of the magazine Action Familiale et Scolaire and author of … Continue reading