Every year New Orleans plays host to a longstanding Catholic tradition which has its origins in the Middle Ages. On Saint Joseph’s Day, March 19th, Catholics all over the city are eager to show their devotion to the head of the Holy Family. The celebration serves as a striking contrast in a … Read more
If ever there was a set of ideas that has been tried and found lacking, it is socialism. It has been tried on every continent. It has been tried in weak nations and strong. It has been tried in primitive countries and those which are highly developed. The most striking thing about … Read more
It is official; the national debt has now exceeded $21 trillion. The tragic news comes just six months after it hit $20 trillion last September 8. This problem is obviously not going away. By voting to suspend the debt ceiling, Congress has allowed the government to borrow as much as it needs until … Read more
About two years ago, a heated debate started among cardinals, bishops and lay Catholics regarding some points of Catholic doctrine related to morality and the sacraments. Can Persons Living in Adultery Receive Communion? More precisely, the dispute is about whether divorced Catholics living in new civil unions can receive Holy Communion while … Read more
It is no secret that middle-class Americans are angry at the government and the general state of things. The so-called anti-establishment candidates appear to be channeling that rage to their camps. It is a raw undefined rage that is based more on frustrations and emotions than on concrete facts or convictions. People … Read more
Speaking with a friend recently, we chanced to talk about money and coins. He is a coin collector and had just visited a coin shop nearby. I mentioned my own studies of medieval economy and its coinage. Much to my surprise and delight, he reached into his inner coat pocket and pulled … Read more
Saint John Bosco, also known as Don Bosco, a Confessor and given the title of “Father and Teacher of Youth” by Pope Pius XI, grew up in a poor household, but one sanctified by a spirit of selflessness and sacrifice. This helped form him not only into a physically very strong young … Read more
“I know what this is all about! I can see it from the title!” some reader might say. Let those readers who are hostile to pomp in Church liturgy get ready for a surprise: Saint Francis advocates precisely the opposite, and how emphatically! You don’t have to take my word for it. … Read more
“Not only is participating in class struggle not opposed to universal love, but today, this commitment is the necessary and inescapable means of making this love concrete, as this participation is what leads to a classless society, a society without owners and dispossessed, without oppressors and oppressed.”This statement is not found in … Read more
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Pauperist Heresies Heresies requiring material poverty for eternal salvation have sprung up since the dawn of Christianity. Here we refer more particularly to medieval miserabilists. Under the influence of the Cathars or Albigensians, who adopted the Manichean principle that … Read more