We’ve been hearing it for weeks now: 2020 was a terrible year and we all can’t wait to shake its dust from our feet and move on to a better, brighter 2021. Between tense racial eruptions, the Covid stranglehold of fear and “socialist” distancing, and the flagrant fraudulence of our election system, 2020 was a … Read more
Despite the persistent opposition and public protest of the architectural elites against a proposed executive order titled Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again, first obtained and reported by the Architectural Record eleven months ago, President Trump, on December 21, signed the executive order titled Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture, which declares that “traditional and classical architecture” … Read more
After New Year’s Day, millions of schoolchildren from kindergarten to university will troop back into their education factories. There, the work of turning their heads to mush shall resume at the hands of their… ah, educators. This might seem a bit strident on my part; however, the truth is that events across the country (since … Read more
For of the soul the body form doth take; for soul is form, and doth the body make… — Edmund Spenser As human beings, we are unified beings of body and soul. We are corporeal, and as such, our most fundamental, natural need is food and water. Food is therefore the beginning of human culture. … Read more
I was in Boston on the weekend the Associated Press, and other esteemed arbiters of American democracy (Fox News, CNN, et cetera, et cetera,) preemptively declared Joseph R. Biden, Jr.—nominal son of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and of the Roman Catholic Church—the forty-sixth President of the United States. You’d think the Patriots had just won the Super … Read more
When an Episcopalian cleric–cum-Dartmouth professor criticizes the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, it’s a safe bet our prelates have done something right. Indeed, such a man—one Randall Balmer—wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times titled, “In What Moral Universe Does Biden Require a Catholic Task Force when Trump Got a Free Pass?” No need … Read more
The Christmas decorations came out early this year. Immediately after Halloween, they began popping up in neighborhoods and strip malls. The justification was 2020—in a year of manifold chaos and distemper defined by the Coronavirus, racial strife, and contentious elections, putting up the decorations early was a cathartic way to bring out those good “Christmas … Read more
“You can’t judge a book by its cover” is a truism. Nonetheless, that does not lessen the value of a book’s title. Selecting the right title is important, like giving the right name to your child. I chose The Shape of Love to introduce my book about the importance of moral virtue, and its rootedness … Read more
The lesson from Isaiah at Midnight Mass on Christmas reads, “Thou has increased their joy and given them great gladness.” I am often struck by the fact that in Christianity joy and gladness are not so much a product of our own activities but something much more, something that happens when all that the Greeks … Read more
For many of us, 2020 has been a difficult year. (Yes, I am aware of the understatement!) Covid-19, along with its ensuing restrictions and economic and personal upheaval, the rioting, election madness, and all the rest of the public horror has for many of us been combined with personal losses, especially the deaths of family … Read more
Without presuming to speak for the human race, but claiming what authority membership bestows, let it be said that there is no time when people are more susceptible to otherworldly interactions than at Christmas time. Marking the greatest spiritual Advent in history, the aura and traditions of Christmas have been alive with spirits ever since … Read more
Stand thou for ever among human Houses, House of the Resurrection, House of Birth; House of the rooted hearts and long carouses, Stand, and be famous over all the Earth. — Hilaire Belloc One of the few joys of this year, a year that has proved particularly joyless, happened back at the end of January … Read more
Ever since “red states” and “blue states” entered our popular lexicon in the weeks following the 2000 election, Americans have understood that our country’s citizens have taken two divergent paths at the fork in the road. Twenty years later, the possibility that those paths will converge one day seems more and more remote. That is … Read more
When Saint Lawrence was thirty-three and a deacon in Rome, the prefect of the city’s secular government demanded the treasure of the Church be handed over; the saint brought forth the city’s poor. The prefect didn’t like that much, and ordered Lawrence burned on a gridiron. After he had been held over the fire for … Read more
It is axiomatic that nothing well-written ever comes from a committee. So, I regard as miraculous the recent report, Catholic Hymnody at the Service of the Church, put forth by the doctrinal watchdogs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is incisive, intelligent, and precise, blessedly free of political correctness, and sensitive to … Read more
Will Santa Claus be the next culprit in a mass spreading of Covid-19? Is it really safe for him to be going house to house, possibly collecting germs from countless families, and infesting the masses with the pandemic? CNN recently published a video starring Dr. Fauci, who assures children (who were clearly coached to ask … Read more
Recently, I helped some friends decorate a parish church in our diocese for Christmas. The priest gave us a picture of their old nativity scene and instructed us to replicate it. If any figure was out of place from the year before, he warned, the parishioners would notice—and they would blame him. Our creativity was … Read more
By now, the majority of Americans have likely tuned out of the voter fraud saga. It is so extensive, so complex, but mostly, so futile. The steal is indeed proving to be too big to fail, and no one wants to touch it. Embittered and exhausted, disenfranchised Americans are done hoping and are mentally preparing … Read more
If you wanted to radically diminish the influence of Christianity in America, what would you do? You would make it against the law. You would bring the law down on the Christian faith by labeling its core teaching as “hate speech.” The claim that same-sex attraction is an unnatural state, and that homosexual acts … Read more
The Chinese Communist Party is “an enemy of humanity.” So declared former Chinese political prisoner, Chen Guangcheng, at the Republican National Convention back in August of 2020. “In China, expressing beliefs or ideas not approved by the CCP—religion, democracy, human rights—can lead to prison. The nation lives under mass surveillance and censorship.” Chen would know. … Read more