A political electoral change is limited without a corresponding cultural change. These were the sentiments of TFP speaker Mario Navarro da Costa in talks given during a November 8-10 Kansas tour.
Mr. da Costa was the luncheon speaker at the Seventh Annual Foundation of Education Symposium at Topeka’s Washburn University on November 8. The one-day event was organized by the school’s Prof. G. Daniel Harden and attracted a variety of scholars and conservative leaders.
This year’s theme was “American Education and the Popular Culture.” From his perspective as director of the TFP’s Washington Bureau, Mr. da Costa delivered a talk titled “Wither Brazil, Wither America.” He commented on electoral victories worldwide and their cultural consequences.
On Saturday, November 9, Mr. da Costa spoke at Washburn University’s International Center on “Splendor and Militancy: Glancing Back at How the Church Once Looked.” Illustrated with slides of the Vatican from the early twentieth century, the speaker considered whether the protocols and splendors of the past were antiquated and cumbersome or living symbols of truths that today are stifled.