October 5, 2020
by Charles Coulombe
Few candid observers today will deny that the asylum of modern life is truly run by the inmates. This home truth was brought home to me yet again by two very different news stories—one of international interest, the other purely local (and that from a town I have only been to a few times). The [...]
August 28, 2020
by Austin Ruse
We like to say that American conservatism is a three-legged stool. The “legs” are the three dominant factions in the Republican Party: social traditionalists, economic libertarians, and foreign policy interventionists. Conventional wisdom holds that the Right is only stable if all three legs are balanced. Yet, over the last half-century, the only “leg” that has [...]
June 30, 2020
by Mary Jo Anderson
President Trump issued an executive order on Friday, June 12, to block the visas and property of some International Criminal Court personnel. Within hours a mushroom cloud of denouncements by Blue-Checks loomed over social media. “More U.S. thuggery.” “The U.S. Rogue Regime continues.” The Court is “blackmailed by lawless gang posing as diplomats.” The International [...]
September 27, 2019
by Austin Ruse
By their own admission, the United Nations plan to impose abortion—which it calls “reproductive health”—on the whole world. It’s a project 25 years in the making, beginning no later than 1994 at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. (It was here that Catholics and Evangelicals were awakened by Pope St. John Paul [...]
January 11, 2019
by Austin Ruse
Pope Francis gave his annual talk to the Vatican diplomatic corps this week. Once more he denounced “nationalism” and promoted multilateralism and international institutions. Like many others, the pope seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding of both nationalism and globalism. But let’s take this seriously for a moment and consider that we live in a [...]
April 21, 2017
by Austin Ruse
Not long ago I lectured to a class of seniors at Catholic University of America on the topic of the UN and the development of international law and human rights. Among the new efforts to develop human rights, I discussed “sexual orientation and gender identity” (SOGI), the hottest of topics anywhere. During the discussion, as [...]
December 23, 2016
by Austin Ruse
This week the brave African delegations to the UN fought a rear-guard action to stop a new UN office that will seek out and punish any country or institution that does not bend to the will of the dominant LGBT ethos. This months-long fight began at the Human Rights Council in Geneva and it was [...]
April 4, 2016
by James Kalb
Everybody favors human rights—the US, the EU, the UN, the leaders of the Church, and indeed all respectable public figures. But what are they? There doesn't seem to be a good explanation. They are rights we have simply as human beings, but what does that mean? It might mean that each of us has a [...]
September 28, 2015
by Samuel Gregg
One of the world’s worst-kept secrets is the Holy See’s high regard for the United Nations. Since Paul VI, popes have appeared before its General Assembly to express their “great esteem,” as Francis remarked in his recent UN address, for its work. Not all Catholics entertain favorable views of the UN. They point, for instance, [...]
August 26, 2015
by Matthew Hennessey
A decade ago I was in graduate school studying international political economy and development, an interdisciplinary course meant to prepare idealistic young Americans for careers in relief organizations and international institutions. The horrors of Srebrenica and Rwanda didn’t seem as distant then as they do now, so genocide—alongside the awfulness of economic globalization—was a hot [...]
August 20, 2015
by James Kalb
Many people believe that ever more comprehensive global governance is needed for the well-being and even survival of humanity. During the Soviet/American Cold War such concerns mostly had to do with the threat of nuclear warfare. Now they’re more likely to relate to ecological catastrophes resulting from economic and population growth. Either way, the system [...]
December 5, 2014
by Austin Ruse
I have been largely skeptical about efforts to revive words or ideas that the left has either invented or eventually swamped. Take feminism, for instance. Even John Paul II talking about the New Feminism made some of us itchy. How can you make nectar out of something that was poison to begin with? For the [...]
September 2, 2014
by Stephen M. Krason
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization made up mostly of industrialized countries “to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.” It emphasizes its commitment to a market economy, democratic rule, economic growth, and environmental well-being. In 2011, it launched its “Better [...]
March 12, 2014
by Dr. William Oddie
Pope Francis has now once again (though to judge by the so far sparse coverage, you’d think he’d never said or done anything before) expressed his abhorrence of clerical sex abuse. Previous popes—indeed most senior clergy—are normally too reticent, however, to do what he has now done as well, that is to say, he has [...]
February 19, 2014
by Fr. George W. Rutler
During a debate on the Senate floor in 1996, at the time of President Clinton’s veto of a bill to ban partial-birth abortion, there was an incident reported in an article in the Washington Post: Not five feet away, Republican Senator, Rick Santorum turned to face the opposition and in a high, pleading voice cried [...]
February 10, 2014
by Anne Hendershott
As faithful Catholics continue to contend with last week’s incendiary United Nations report attacking the Church for her teachings on contraception, abortion, and homosexuality, it may be time to look closely at the real agenda at the United Nations. For more than two decades, the UN has dedicated itself to attempting to diminish the influence [...]
February 6, 2014
by Anne Hendershott
In their continuing quest to marginalize the influence of the Catholic Church on the culture war issues of abortion and same-sex marriage, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is attempting to resurrect yet again the moral panic surrounding exaggerated claims of clerical sexual abuse. Denouncing the Vatican for adopting policies that [...]
November 27, 2013
by Richard Becker
God bless you, Mr. Gates. You made a pile of dough, and now you’re trying to spread the love—like your foundation’s efforts to fight disease and poverty throughout the developing world. You’re making possible tremendous change for the good—keep it up! The world admires and applauds you. Here’s the problem, though: In addition to underwriting [...]
November 20, 2013
by Mary Jo Anderson
The philosophy in the school room in one generation will become the philosophy of government in the next. — Abraham Lincoln [A]t the request of educators I wrote the World Core Curriculum, the product of the United Nations, the meta-organism of human and planetary evolution. — Robert Muller, former U.N. Assistant Secretary General The education [...]
October 11, 2013
by Austin Ruse
A nasty Norwegian diplomat at the UN frequently badmouths the Holy See. He wonders why Holy See diplomats are allowed into the room during negotiations. He says outright that the Holy See ought to leave. This has happened more than once. It’s amusing a Norwegian would say such a thing. The development of Norway is [...]