In the 1960s, Popes John XXIII and Paul VI initiated a new Vatican approach to the countries behind the iron curtain, the Ostpolitik.The tactics included a cessation of all public Vatican criticism of communist regimes. No serious student of these matters judges the Ostpolitik a success. Those claiming otherwise are willfully ignorant, obtuse, unwilling to learn from the past—or, perhaps, all of the above. Continue Reading »
An interview with Rémi Brague, by Samuel Pruvot of Famille Chrétienne. Translated from French by Francesca Aran Murphy. Continue Reading »
Why the lack of a catholic appreciation for legitimate liturgical diversity? No one can truthfully claim that the Ordinary Form prohibits ad orientem celebration. So, who’s afraid of ad orientem worship, and why? Continue Reading »
At Donald Trump's old church, Mary and the fugitive Holy Family are there—just tucked in the corner, safely out of sight. Continue Reading »
Healing people’s wounds means counseling them with the love of Christ, but never misleading them with erroneous teachings or allowing them to abuse Holy Communion. Continue Reading »
Ben Lerner’s elegant, amusing essay turns on a distinction between Poetry and poems. Poetry is Caedmon’s dream, a virtual ideal that actual poems can’t live up to. “The fatal problem with poetry,” Lerner writes, is “poems.” Every poet is, inevitably, “a tragic figure.” Continue Reading »
“For me, the true poet is the metaphysician.” That is almost certainly an exaggeration. But we ignore the metaphysician in the poet at our own peril. Continue Reading »
Part 3, SERVICE. When you join a committee, you either make your colleagues' workdays easier or make them harder. If the latter, they will remember the fact and it may very well come up at tenure time. Continue Reading »
John Quincy Adams stands out as a model for twenty-first-century American politicians because he aimed not to please, but to do the right thing, irrespective of the cost. Continue Reading »
A new film, The Innocents, tells a moving story of healing and grace without downplaying the grief and trauma that preceded them. And it does this while addressing a moral blind spot of our popular culture. Continue Reading »
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