Today is the feast of the Blessed Emperor, Charles I of Austria-Hungary. The release of my new biography of the saintly monarch last month have for obvious reasons brought him to my mind in recent days. Added to this is the impending dedication of the 16th shrine in his honor in these United States, at [...]

I once had the unenviable task of explaining to Thomas Howard what the alt-right is. “They’re white nationalists,” I said, “but they also oppose the ascent of libertarians in the Republican Party.” “I see.” He nodded. “And what’s a libertarian?” That one I couldn’t bring myself to explain. It would be an honor to say [...]

Pope John Paul II once said that, “In the designs of Providence, there are no mere coincidences.” That is one way to explain why a Polish pope, dedicated above all to defending the dignity of the human person, would step onto the world stage just as the most powerful country on earth was about to [...]

The priesthood of Jesus Christ, in which every Christian priest shares, is the source of holiness in the Church and the impetus for all evangelization. Through the ministry of the priest, Christ’s lay faithful are nourished with the Word of Life and the Bread of Life; their sanctification makes possible the sanctification of the world. [...]

Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath (Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.) And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain, Up which a lean and foolish knight forever rides in vain, And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the [...]

How odd that the first known owner of the Shroud of Turin should be, not some wealthy cardinal or powerful lord, but a knight. Now, granted, Geoffroi de Charny was no ordinary knight. He was, by all accounts, the most capable soldier in the service of France during the Hundred Years’ War and the most [...]

It’s September 11 as I write, just shy a full 20 years from the day that changed America. Veterans of my generation—the one that responded after 9/11—have a joke. As children just sorting out language, we believed the word “veteran” was synonymous with “old person.” Looking in the mirror today, we now find ourselves disconcerted [...]

Recently I told a very eligible young bachelor about the career advice I give to young women. He asked if I would share my advice with a young woman in whom he has a romantic interest. Here is my advice. Dear Jane, Congratulations on your graduation from college. You probably think your next step is [...]

“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” asserted Abraham Lincoln during his acceptance speech for the Illinois Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate in 1858. Three years later Lincoln would be sworn in as President of the United States and would be leading his country through the American Civil War. Of course, Lincoln did not [...]

One morning I woke up to the alarm on my cell phone. I often do. The time was 5:00 a.m.; the air conditioner had been running hard all night, and in its loud, motorized hum, punctuated by the occasional asthmatic bout of clanking, I had dreamt strangely. I’ve gone through some pains to choose my [...]

In case you didn’t think the antics of the woke name police could get any more absurd, on August 31, the “D.C. Facilities and Commemorative Expressions Working Group” released a report urging the District of Columbia to rename, remove, or “contextualize” various municipal public properties named after various historical persons. Included in the list are [...]

Alcohol sales are on the rise, and have been for a while. No surprise when liquor stores are identified as essential institutions, even though our churches aren’t. People who haven’t been able get to Mass, or to their libraries, or to their workplaces haven’t yet been forbidden from going out and buying a bottle of [...]

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Humans are mimetic creatures: we learn by images and imitation. This is nothing new. Aristotle identified it, Saint Thomas Aquinas built from it, and René Girard pioneered his grand theory of violence and the sacred from it. As Christianity declines, the human impulse for transcendence [...]

The world has never done a real good job of listening to prophets. The Old Testament prophets didn’t have a lot of success throughout the long history of Israel. They came along regularly and warned people to repent. Several of them were stoned to death for their troubles, and many were treated in an abrupt [...]

In a recent article for the Catholic Herald of London, Eve Tushnet argues that the Church has a stark choice. Either she must accept out-and-proud gay men and women as they are or, failing that, she must risk losing them to apostasy or suicide. Ms. Tushnet asserts that any efforts to help men to deal [...]

Black lives do matter. Period. My first step-father was a racist and an abuser. He constantly used the “n”-word and denigrating language for all who were non-white. He also beat my mother and fired a gun inside our home. I never embraced racism in any form—my stepfather’s character made that easy. During my youth, by [...]

Excellence-focused community organizations are a brainchild of Robert L. Woodson, Sr. The founder and president of Woodson Center recently launched a new campaign called “1776 Unites,” in which neighborhood organizations exorcise the demon of victimhood possessing the 1619 Project and our entire “woke” culture with the holy water of virtue formation. Instead of telling young [...]

The Lord has commanded us to assist the poor. This is not an option. How shall we do it? One of the paradoxical results of obsessive political agitation is that it makes political discussions almost impossible. Imagine someone on a sickbed, afflicted with a disease that makes the lightest touch upon the skin feel like [...]

“Where is the road which leads us to Jesus Christ? It is before our eyes: it is the Church. It is our duty to recall to everyone, great and small, the absolute necessity we are under to have recourse to this Church in order to work out our eternal salvation.” — Pope Saint Pius X [...]

It was at about 3:30 a.m. when, in the middle of a dream, I awoke to a noise. Since the noise appeared to be that of a rifle being discharged from somewhere about the house, the line between dream and reality was a trifle blurred. Grabbing my 12-gauge and donning my brown leather slippers, I [...]