The season of Septuagesima in which we find ourselves has a number of popular names: “Carnival” from carne vale – farewell to meat, in token of the approach of Lent. Another is Mardi Gras – “Fat Tuesday,” the last day … Continue reading
Category: Articles
Getting What We Deserve
Registering his thoughts on an article by me published on the SBC website a couple of months ago, “When Government Fails,” Gene De, a regular website visitor whose frequent comments are always intelligent and welcome, posted this: “Because spiritual sloth … Continue reading
What is ‘Inculturation?’
The recently-completed season of Christmas has many lessons to teach us. One is that every nation has its own way of celebrating the mystery of the Incarnation. Indeed, as numerous websites show us, the ways of expressing belief in the … Continue reading
February 6, 1934: A Royalist Last Stand
February 6 is a date that means nothing to Americans but it is the anniversary of one of the most memorable events in modern French history, an event with repercussions not merely for the French but other peoples belonging to … Continue reading
On Being ‘Single Issue’
Joseph Sobran will go down as one of the great American thinkers of our time. Now, Mr. Sobran is considered controversial in some circles, due largely to his not-so-amicable break with William F. Buckley. But I don’t think Sobran set … Continue reading
What is America?
Nothing reflects the strangely mixed nature of our country so much as the uniquely American way of celebrating Christmas. The Christmas Tree is German; Santa Claus, via Clement Moore, Thomas Nast, the old New York Sun, and Coca-Cola, Dutch; holly … Continue reading
“The Betrothed”, Alessandro Manzoni and Pope Pius XI
After recently discovering some previously-unknown-to-me, trustworthy reports about the generous diplomatic and priestly sacramental presence of the future Pope Pius XI (Monsignor Achille Ratti) in Poland towards the end of World War I and during the gravely consequential Battle of … Continue reading
What Is Christendom?
The question posed by the title of this article was asked several of us by our august editor. Its immediacy is reinforced by the season of Christmas – which, despite being under sporadic attack by “holiday” partisans, centers on the … Continue reading
More on the Battle of Warsaw / General Fuller’s Insights
While recently reading some of G.K. Chesterton’s written reflections in 19271 shortly after his return from his invited April-May visit to Poland, and then also some of his more abiding insights about the plight and character of Poland almost a … Continue reading
January/February 2014 Mancipia
The January/ February 2013 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
When Government Fails
In 1906, my home town of San Francisco, then the largest city in the United States west of Chicago, was destroyed by earthquake and fire. When I was a kid there were still a lot of folks around who had … Continue reading
Hope of the Half-Defeated
Especially after witnessing my German wife’s unlooked-for response very late the other night while (and moreso after) I read aloud to her for the first time G.K. Chesterton’s short essay, “Two Words from Poland,”1 I am now even more confident … Continue reading
‘Just a Brother’
It is often the case that when one of the brothers meets someone new, a variety of questions arise concerning exactly what we are. “What’s a brother?” “Are you a priest?” “What do brothers do?” “Why be a brother?” I … Continue reading
Clearing the Mind of Cant
G.K. Chesterton’s concluding words in his earnest 1936 essay “About Voltaire” were forcefully compact and sudden and yet, at first, a little too compressed for my immediate understanding, even though I had read those words more than once before: namely, … Continue reading
Tony
He was an impressive looking man when I first met him. I was a religious brother then, in the early 1980s. In his seventies at the time, Tony was well-built, robust, sartorial, well-groomed, and rather short; he had a deep … Continue reading
