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Any attempt to revive the failed conservative consensus that preceded Trump would be misguided and harmful to the right. Continue Reading »

Lay Leadership Citing mass disenfranchisement in a “papal-episcopal oligarchy,” ­Bronwen McShea (“Bishops Unbound,” January) argues for institutional representation of “entire classes of lay and clerical members of the Church” currently “at the mercy of episcopal authority.” She . . . . Continue Reading »

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary:  Unveiling the Mother of the Messiah  by brant pitre image books, 240 pages, $24 In Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, Brant Pitre challenges the oft-heard charge that the Catholic Church’s Marian beliefs are “unbiblical.” He offers a rich . . . . Continue Reading »

SEMINARY REFORM I commend Thomas Berg (“Getting Formation Right,” December) for his suggestions for reforming the seminary system in light of the new Ratio Fundamentalis. Nevertheless, by failing to consider the time before and after seminary as a part of the solution, his proposals for . . . . Continue Reading »

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts:  Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World by christopher de hamel penguin, 640 pages, $45 Illuminated manuscripts remain cultural touchstones of the Middle Ages, symbols of forgotten learning, mystery, and beauty. Unfortunately, they are often locked away in . . . . Continue Reading »

Muslim Progressives Paul Rowan Brian (“Muslims in American Politics,” November) has deftly laid bare the source of Muslims’ predicament in the United States: their profound anxiety over being accepted as “real” Americans, and the tendency of this anxiety to overcome their confidence in the . . . . Continue Reading »

The Best American Poetry 2018  edited by dana gioia scribner, 240 pages, $18.99 American poetry lost three greats last year: John ­Ashbery, ­Richard Wilbur, and ­Donald Hall. But it also welcomed A. R. ­Ammons’s “Finishing Up,” A. E. ­Stallings’s “Pencil,” and Anne . . . . Continue Reading »

Death Penalty Sad to say, but as surely as night follows day, when Pope Francis speaks on doctrinal matters, confusion results. And so it is with the pope’s August revision to section 2267 of the Catechism. Although taught by the Church for two millennia as a legitimate punishment for . . . . Continue Reading »

The Republic of Virtue:  How We Tried to Ban Corruption, Failed, and What We Can Do About It by f. h. buckley encounter, 296 pages, $25.99 Something is rotten in the states of America. F. H. Buckley, law professor at George Mason University, believes patronage networks and crony capitalism . . . . Continue Reading »

Geoffrey Hill Like Garrick Davis (“Geoffrey Hill, Prodigal,” August/September), I too had the fortune of having Geoffrey Hill as an instructor. In 2004, I was a student in the Boston University writing seminars, and a few of us from the writing program took Hill’s Gerard Manley Hopkins seminar . . . . Continue Reading »