In our last outing, after considering the horror of a society in which the medical murder of little Alfie Evans could occur — especially one as “God-invoking” and “nice” as that of the 21st century West — it was promised … Continue reading
Category: Articles
A Miscalculated Demolition: Evelyn Waugh’s 1942 Wartime Letter to His Wife
Some Modern Catholic (or Neo-Modernist) Churchmen have advocated –at least since Pope Pius XII’s 1950 Encyclical, Humani Generis, or soon thereafter — “the demolition of the bastions,” seeming to refer to a timely removing of the barriers between the Catholic … Continue reading
Science vs. God
Modern man derives much of his sense of himself as master of all he surveys from science and technology in general, but nothing feeds his notion of being the master of life itself more than the new birth technologies. They … Continue reading
A Christian Soldier Under Caesar? Was it Licit?
And the soldiers also asked him, saying: And what shall we do? And he said to them: Do violence to no man; neither calumniate any man; and be content with your pay (Matthew 3:14). Then Jesus saith to him: Put … Continue reading
Cardinal Sarah and The Prisoner
Catholics of traditional bent were elated when they learned that Robert Cardinal Sarah was the celebrant of the culminating Mass of this year’s Pentecost Chartres Pilgrimage. If they listened to his homily on You Tube or read the English translation … Continue reading
Joseph Ratzinger on the Priesthood and on the Resurrection
In the latter part of 2006, after the April 2005 installation of Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, I had occasion to tell a professor friend of mine confidentially that I have always had difficulties reading with understanding the varied … Continue reading
Hilaire Belloc’s Memorable 1911 Depiction of a Sussex Squire: Fuller of Brightling
One year after Hilaire Belloc’s four-year term in the British House of Commons (1906-1910), he published The Four Men: A Farrago (1911), wherein he memorably depicts the robust and eccentric and magnanimously generous Squire Fuller of Brightling, an honored native … Continue reading
‘The Last Secret’ of World War II
When the Allies invaded Europe at points along the Normandy coast 74 years ago on D-Day, June 6, 1944, ten percent of the men in German uniforms they took prisoner were Russians. Many belonged to German army labor battalions who … Continue reading
God Lite, or: a Girlie Religion for a Girlie Culture
The last time I did jury duty I was outside on the courthouse plaza smoking during a break when a young man, a millennial, approached me and asked for a cigarette. I was surprised. Sixty years ago, when I was … Continue reading
May/June 2018 Mancipia
The May/June 2018 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
Maurice Baring’s 1927 Novel on Russia and Wartime Manchuria: Tinker’s Leave
Ten years after the sacred events at Fatima, Portugal, as well as a full decade after the 1917 Bolshevik revolutionary takeover in Russia, Maurice Baring — who knew the Russian language very well — wrote another book on Russia (and … Continue reading
Saint John Eudes and the Middle Age Controversy Over the Immaculate Conception
I am reading Part One (of three parts) of The Wondrous Childhood of the Most Holy Mother of God by Saint John Eudes. It is a masterpiece of filial devotion to the Mother of God, reflecting on her holy childhood, … Continue reading
The Myth and Reality of Charles de Gaulle, Part II
(Part one is found here.) In the first part of this article I made the point that myth surrounds the figures of all men recognized as leaders and that the leaders who loom largest in history textbooks are those most … Continue reading
The Evil That We Are
Little Alfie Evans is dead. The poor mite had little hope, humanly speaking, in any case; but the determination of the British medical, bureaucratic, and judicial establishment to kill him — in the face of an Italian government that was … Continue reading
The Myth and Reality of Charles de Gaulle
Myth often usurps reality with men clinging to the former and ignoring the latter. For instance, most persons seem to persist in thinking of Ireland as still a Catholic country even though Mass is now celebrated in largely empty churches, … Continue reading
