When in 1902 G.K. Chesterton first published his essay “Tolstoy’s Cult of Simplicity” in a book of twelve of his collected essays, he was only twenty-eight years of age, and it was then only two years after he had first … Continue reading
Category: Articles
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 Family Under Attack’: a Much Needed Guide for the Synod on the Family
Loreto Publications has just published an important and very timely book. The Family Under Attack, written under a pseudonym by a traditional Catholic priest with broad and deep scholarly learning, comes right in time for the second part of the … Continue reading
Considering Catholic Ecclesiology in Some of Its Professedly Progressive Forms
“Catholics today will need heroic virtue — did you hear me? heroic virtue — just to hold on to the Faith, much less to grow more in the Faith and to pass it on intact to our children.” Continue reading
The Way to the Father
Not long ago, I penned an appreciation of the Father. Presently, I would like to consider Our Lord as the Way to the Father. That is how Jesus described Himself, and, moreover, we cannot have a filial relationship with the … Continue reading
Close Advisor of Pope Speaks about Pope’s Methods of Changing the Church
On May 10, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published an interview with Archbishop Victor Fernández who is a close collaborator of Pope Francis. He is said to have ghost-written Pope Francis’ first Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium and to be … Continue reading
An Invitation to The Modern Traveller (1898): Hilaire Belloc’s Satirical and Youthful Narrative Verse
If we would want to appreciate the comic genius of Hilaire Belloc, and especially the inimitable comic cadence and comic syntax which mark and unmistakably pervade his 1898 narrative verse satire, The Modern Traveller, we should first consider the larger … Continue reading
Perseverance: a Graduation Speech
The following is a brief introductory speech I gave at IHM School’s graduation this past Sunday. Readers should know that our school in rural southern New Hampshire is very small. We had one graduate this year — a fine young man who … Continue reading
“England and Always”: Part I: Separated by a Common Language
“England and Always” The British, the Empire, and the Faith Part I: Separated by a Common Language If England was what England seems An’ not the England of our dreams, But only putty, brass, an’ paint, ‘Ow quick we’d drop … 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
Maurice Baring’s Insights on the Russian Character
How might a deeply reflective book of almost four hundred pages written by a Catholic Englishman some seven years before the 1917 Communist Revolution in Russia — and thus also seven years before Our Lady of Fatima’s own 1917 sustained … Continue reading
The Celtic Church — Myth and Reality II
[Click here for part one.] Depending upon whom you read or speak to, the received modern narrative about “Celtic Spirituality” is roughly like this. Once upon a time, the Druids lived happily in green and misty Celtic lands, leading their … Continue reading
The Suffocation of a Managed Political-Ecclesiastical Glossary
It was almost three months after the raids of 11 September 2001 against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and yet the language of public discourse was still swollen and fevered. On many fronts one could not easily block … Continue reading
A Most Beautiful Hymn to our May Queen, Mary the Mother of God, Akathistos Theotokos
There are many good reasons why May is dedicated to Our Lady. Several important Marian feast days fall during this month: Our Lady of Fatima on the 13th, Our Lady Help of Christians on the 24th, feast of the Visitation … 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
