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Our Pro-Life Future

A few years back, I saw an anchor on network news observe that the average age of abortion doctors was above sixty, and there weren’t many such doctors left. Then I saw something I was entirely unaccustomed to seeing on network news: a story about Project Rachel, and how it was helping . . . . Continue Reading »

Portals of the Past

When the Sight & Sound poll—the oldest and most prestigious film ranking—declared in 2012 that Vertigo was the greatest film ever made, Armond White denounced the film’s admirers for their “obsessive interest in pathology and soullessness.” James Wolcott dismissed the . . . . Continue Reading »

Briefly Noted

Perseverance in the Parish?:  Religious Attitudes from a Black Catholic Perspective by darren w. davis and donald b. pope-davis cambridge, 198 pages, $99.99 Perseverance in the Parish? details the findings of the largest and most methodologically rigorous study of the three million . . . . Continue Reading »

City of the Chosen

Welcome to Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138! We’re a college town, home to Harvard, MIT, and a very large branch of Whole Foods. We’re one of the most “liberal” cities in the country, and our coffee mugs bear the slogan “02138: The World’s Most Opinionated Zip Code,” but all our opinions . . . . Continue Reading »

Eternal Rome

I was fifteen when I first saw Rome. One of my mother’s sisters had invited me to stay with her; we lived in a little hotel near the Via Nomentana and we were on our feet from morning till evening because I wanted to see “everything.” I came home convinced that I had actually seen . . . . Continue Reading »

Letters

DEADLY DESERTS Paul Griffiths’s sneering review of our book, By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed (“Against Capital Punishment,” December 2017), illustrates how much bile—and how little charity—is often to be found in those who speak the loudest of mercy and humanity. Griffiths suggests . . . . Continue Reading »

From What Is Left Over

Nearly a decade ago, I had the privilege of attending a lecture by Pope Benedict, “The Roots of European Culture.” He developed his theme through a discussion of medieval monasticism. The elite of the Parisian intelligentsia was in attendance, and their bewilderment was obvious. What was the . . . . Continue Reading »

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