By early 1869, the controversies preceding the Vatican Council were fierce. At that point, Most Rev. Henri Maret, Bishop of Sura and Dean of the Faculty of Theology in Paris, announced the publication of a book condemning Papal infallibility. He had spent many years writing Du concile général et de la paix … Read more
Some books can give the impression that everything is backward. The author holds as true all the theses that you affirm as false. The course of events that the author finds positive, you read negative. Fareed Zakaria’s Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash From 1600 to the Present is one such book. … Read more
“Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.” This quotation is attributed to British playwright William Congreve (1670-1729). It is usually paraphrased as “Music soothes the savage beast.” This maxim is universally accepted. For this reason, some sort of music is played everywhere. Whether … Read more
It’s official. The Ten Commandments must now be posted in Louisiana schools. The Governor Jeff Landry just signed the law that makes it mandatory. The law reads: “Each public school governing authority and the governing authority of each nonpublic school that receives state funds shall display the Ten Commandments in each building … Read more
Ironically, one of the reasons for Saint John Cardinal Fisher’s relative obscurity is confusion with his contemporary, Saint Thomas More. They were convicted of the same crime and executed in the same manner. Holy Mother Church canonized them in the same ceremony 400 years after their deaths. First, we need to place … Read more
The modern “center-left” position contains a fatal flaw. It cannot prevent its ideas from being used to inspire even more radical modes of thinking. This tendency expressed itself as French liberalism degenerated into the “anti-infallibilist” movement of the late nineteenth century. Before the First Vatican Council convened in 1869, French Catholic liberal … Read more
On a hot June morning in rural Pennsylvania, a large room packed with boys listened in eager silence to the first of several meetings at the Call to Chivalry Summer Camp held from June 5 to 15. The event was organized by the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and … Read more
The disappointing 9-0 Supreme Court decision striking down the challenge to the FDA’s loosened restrictions on the abortion pill, mifepristone, is a tragic example of everything that is wrong with the American legal system. The Court reduced the case to a procedural problem of standing—the right of a party to represent a … Read more
“Two lame ducks, Macron and Scholz, and a former sovereigntist ugly duckling turned into a swan, Giorgia Meloni. This is what is left of Europe after the electoral earthquake.” These words, written by the columnist Antonio Polito in the Corriere della Sera of June 11, express the essence of the electoral result … Read more
When Pius IX published the bull Aeterni Patris convening the First Vatican Council in 1868, Ultramontanism was practically victorious in France. The Catholic movement had received a vigorous boost from the apostolate of the nineteenth century’s early Ultramontanes. Throughout the century, it advanced and remained steadfastly orthodox despite some leaders’ attempts to … Read more