The Great Siege: Malta 1565

The Great Siege: Malta 1565 3

The year is 1565. Soleyman the Great, the Ottoman Turk’s greatest leader orders an advance on Malta in an attempt to finish once and for all with the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem (Hospitallers), his greatest enemy. Encouraged by his victory over them at Rhodes 42 years earlier, he is certain … Read more

Beyond the Call of Duty

Beyond the Call of Duty 1

Americans love heroes. Something about them grips the American soul. Perhaps the attraction lies precisely in going against the zeitgeist of this hedonistic age. Heroes are outside the box. They do not fare well in a culture where real living has been reduced to pre-packaged experiences and media-generated events. They get lost … Read more

Apologia for a Catholic Counter-Revolutionary

Apologia for a Catholic Counter-Revolutionary 2

“When still very young, I marveled at the ruins of Christendom and gave them my heart. I turned my back on all I could expect and made of that past, so full of blessings, my future.” With these words taken from an address made by the Brazilian jurist and eminent conservative thinker … Read more

Don Pelayo and the Reconquista of Spain

Don Pelayo and the Reconquista of Spain

One fascinating aspect of the Old Testament is God’s intervention favoring those who do all they possibly can while facing overwhelming odds and counting on Him to do the impossible. As we read about David and Goliath, Gideon and the Battle of Jericho, the Maccabees and others, we have the impression that … Read more

Garcia Moreno: Heroic President of Ecuador

Garcia Moreno, President of Ecuador, Writes to His Holiness Blessed Pius IX 1

Manly Catholic of intransigent principles, slain by the enemies of the Faith because of his consistency and courage in defense of the Church and Papacy Gabriel Garcia Moreno was born in Guayaquil, in southern Ecuador on December 24, 1821. His father, Gabriel Garcia Gómez was Spanish, while his mother, Doña Mercedes Moreno, … Read more

What Are They Doing To Attract A Crowd Like This One?

What Are They Doing To Attract A Crowd Like This One?

When it comes to the apostolate, the primary concern of many reformers seems to be how to attract multitudes to the Church. The twentieth-century, more than any of the preceding ones, can be called the century of the multitudes. Everywhere multitudes gather — and for every reason: political rallies, sports games, rock … Read more

Was Youth Made for Pleasure or Heroism?

Was Youth Made for Pleasure or Heroism?

With the guitar hanging around his neck and the microphone in his hand, Elvis Presley is shown in the photo singing and dancing before a frenzied public. In man, the intelligence ought to direct the will, and both of them should in turn enlighten the sensibility, guiding it and supporting it to … Read more

The Centennial of Pascendi

The Centennial of Pascendi 1

A hundred years ago, on September 8, 1907, Pope Saint Pius X (1903–1914) published the Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (Feeding the Lord’s Flock) against the devastating doctrines of Modernism. It was the culmination of an offensive that caused irreparable damage to Modernism. A month earlier, the Congregation of the Holy Office had … Read more

TFP Call to Chivalry Camp: Where Boys Become Catholic Gentlemen

TFP Call to Chivalry Camp: Where Boys Become Catholic Gentlemen 5

In Kenelm Henry Digby’s book, The Broad-Stone of Honor, the following definition of chivalry is offered: “Chivalry is only a name for that general spirit or state of mind which disposes men to heroic actions, and keeps them conversant with all that is beautiful and sublime in the intellectual and moral world.” … Read more