I have a distinct memory, from my Catholic high school days back in the 1950s, of a black and white photograph in a history textbook. It was of a soldier in a funny-looking uniform; he had an even funnier-sounding name. … Continue reading
Category: Book Reviews
Book Review: The Iron Man of China
If the axiom “the corruption of the best is the worst” is true of persons, it can also be true of institutions, and perhaps even of nations as well. Too often this proverb, which ought to be a perennial caveat, … Continue reading
THE CATHOLIC DOGMA, by Father Michael Mueller (a Book Review)
THE CATHOLIC DOGMA Extra Ecclesiam Nullus omnino Salvatur by Father Michael Mueller, C.SS.R. When I read an old edition of this myth-shattering book about twenty-five years ago, I was convinced that it could inspire every earnest Catholic with an evangelical … Continue reading
Philip II: a Book Review
Enormous accumulations of evil encircled the sixteenth century, making it one of the most disturbed in the history of Christendom. The enemies of the Holy Catholic Church had been tearing at her in bits and pieces, but it was not … Continue reading
Book Review: Come and Follow Me
(Come and Follow Me, by Father Stephano Maria Manelli, F.I.,) In the days since Vatican II, the Church has seen an alarming decline in the numbers of young people willing to consecrate themselves to God in the life of religion … Continue reading
Review of The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture by Philip Lawler
In 1985 the US bishops received a confidential report on sexual abuse by clerics, warning them that there was “simply too much at stake for the Church” for the hierarchy to ignore the issue. (From the Introduction to The Faithful … Continue reading
Cardinal Biffi’s Bombshell
He retired as Archbishop of Bologna in 2003. In June of 2008, he will be eighty and therefore ineligible to vote in conclave. All the same, Giacomo Cardinal Biffi is exerting tremendous influence — if only moral influence — in … Continue reading
Boniface VIII and the Heresy of Statism
A Review of The Church at the Turning Points of History, by Godfrey Kurth. Paperback: 160 pages Publisher: IHS Press (September 1, 2007) ISBN-10: 1932528091 ISBN-13: 978-1932528091 History is the laboratory of wisdom, says my mentor. But for all the … Continue reading
Review of Harvard to Harvard: Part III
This is the final installment of our review of Abbot Gabriel’s book. The “Regularization.” When Abbot Gabriel told me that there would be things Brother Francis would not agree with in his book, I assumed that these would be matters … Continue reading
Review of Harvard to Harvard: Part II
In the last edition, I mentioned that my review of Abbot Gabriel’s book would cover both its positive and its negative aspects. I also mentioned that, should the parts we view as less favorable get more attention, it is not … Continue reading
Review of Harvard to Harvard: Part I
The Abbot of St. Benedict Abbey in Still River has made an important contribution to the historical literature on Father Feeney and his Crusade. Abbot Gabriel Gibbs, O.S.B., one of the early members of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart … Continue reading
Calling Good Evil – on A Moral Reckoning by Daniel Goldhagen
Jewish author Daniel Goldhagen’s recent book, A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust And Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair (Alfred A. Knopf; 362 pages; $25.00), contains what may be considered the ultimate aim of all … Continue reading