A number of recent events are rather in my craw at the moment: the entirely secular inauguration of King Felipe VI of Spain; so much of what happens in Rome today; the July 4th celebrations in which we annually tell … Continue reading
Category: Articles
An Unexpected Request for Alms in a Southern Harbor: Hilaire Belloc Under Sail in Palma of Majorca
While recently on the ocean-seacoast island of my boyhood home, I decided to read again amidst the inspiring cool sea breezes my own fragile first edition of Hilaire Belloc’s 1908 collection of essays, entitled On Nothing and Kindred Subjects, which … Continue reading
July/August 2014 Mancipia
The July/August 2014 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 regularly. … Continue reading
An Option for the Officially Overwhelmed
A Question for You Have you ever felt like if pulling your hair out was an acceptable way to relieve stress, you would be bald? Are your hands getting raw from desperately clutching the end of your rope for so … Continue reading
Papal Blasts From the Past
Leaving my apartment building last February 18, I fell on the icy front steps and broke both bones of my right forearm, the radius and ulna, about two fingers below the wrist bone. It wouldn’t be until six weeks later … Continue reading
Holy Fear of the Lord: Necessary for Salvation
But I will shew you whom you shall fear: fear ye him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him (Luke 12:5; Matthew 10:28)). There is no theme more often … Continue reading
What do Universities Teach?
Several recent occurrences have put me to thinking about universities in particular and education in general. One was marching in the Eucharistic Procession through the streets of Cambridge, MA, in support of the Blessed Sacrament against the planned Black Mass … Continue reading
Review of The Church Ascending by Dr. Diane Moczar
A New Title for a First Book: Review of The Church Ascending by Dr. Diane Moczar. Sophia Press, 2014 This is not a new book by this talented author, but a reprint of her first book, What Every Catholic Wants … Continue reading
Woodrow Wilson, the Great War and Our World Today
My friend and colleague Charles Coulombe, a writer familiar to this website’s regular visitors, will attest that in 1992 when Bill Clinton was first elected, I predicted to him that nobody better would become President in the future. In other … Continue reading
Saint John and Belloc: Patmos and the Holy Land
Shortly after the 1939 commencement of World War II and the largely unexpected, rapid fall of France in 1940, Hilaire Belloc received another shock, an announcement which much more deeply pierced, and indeed almost broke, his heart: the loss of … Continue reading
Debating With Liberals: Why This Is Often A Treadmill To Nowhere
Debating with liberals can be an intense experience and most frustrating indeed. We might turn red-faced, increase the tone of our voice, and repeat or rephrase a point in order to make evident that which to us seems to be … Continue reading
May/June 2014 Mancipia
The March/ April 2014 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 … Continue reading
Seeking the Kingdom
Ever since Constantine legalized the Faith, Catholics have striven for perfection, far from the madding crowd of nominal believers and the outright corrupt. The first fruits of this quest were Ss. Paul the Hermit and Anthony the Abbot, from whom … Continue reading
Like Hitler?
I recently heard a man describe Russian President Vladimir Putin as being “like Hitler”. He was explaining Russia’s “invasion” of the Crimea to one of his children. I know the man pretty well, and know that like the majority of … Continue reading
Two Chivalrous Defenders of Saint Joan of Arc: Georges Bernanos and Hilaire Belloc
Five years before the beginning of World War I, Joan of Arc was Beatified by Pope Saint Pius X. (It was on 18 April 1909 in Paris.) A little more than a decade later, and after the devastating 1914-1918 War, … Continue reading
