Summorum Pontificum , the motu proprio whereby the pope grants a universal indult for the celebration of Mass according to the 1962 missal, was promulgated on Saturday in Latin without, at least yet, being accompanied by official translations into modern languages. That fact, like the very . . . . Continue Reading »
Recently, when the Supreme Court declined to strike down as unconstitutional a federal law prohibiting the killing of partially delivered babies by the grisly practice formally known as "dilation and extraction abortion," a reptilian creature known to Americans of an earlier time as . . . . Continue Reading »
With the failure of the immigration bill still causing murmurs across the nation, the topic of immigration, legal and illegal, has finally moved to the front burner of American politics. And while most frequently thought a problem in the big cities of such states as California, Arizona, and Texas, . . . . Continue Reading »
We have come to rely on Alan Wolfe as just the sort of "expert" on religion who can be trusted to keep America safe from the kinds of people who read First Things . Now he is branching out. A recent issue of the New Republic features his review of The Essential Russell Kirk: Selected . . . . Continue Reading »
Another day, another dollar. Well, actually, another month, another issue of First Things . And the cost is more than a dollar¯a copy of the magazine will set you back $4.95 on the newsstand. Fortunately, it’s much cheaper to subscribe for a year , and cheaper still if you sign up only . . . . Continue Reading »
Whether in foul weather or fair, a bicyclist would sometimes suddenly emerge from an opening in the neighboring woods. The bicyclist would then ride pell-mell on a dirt path across a meadow toward a divinity school, located in the northern suburbs of Chicago. If the weather were foul, mud could be . . . . Continue Reading »
One of the more deft moves in Benedict’s apostolic letter motu proprio , titled " Summorum Pontificum ," is in referring to the 1962 form of the Roman Rite as the Mass of Blessed John XXIII. It is not the Tridentine Mass or the Mass of Pius V but the Mass of John XXIII. It is the . . . . Continue Reading »
Tearing humans off the pedestal of exceptionalism is all the rage today among academics, philosophers, and other assorted members of the intelligentsia. The war against unique human worth¯of which many remain unaware¯is being mounted on many fronts: "Personhood Theory" in . . . . Continue Reading »
What are you doing looking here on the Fourth of July? Go away. Set off some firecrackers. Recite some patriotic speeches. Watch the rockets’ red glare. Read about how the Peterkin boys, Solomon John, and Agamemnon made their disaster of "fulminating paste" from iron-filings and . . . . Continue Reading »
I present to you a document of some forty pages entitled " Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road " prepared by a Vatican office known as the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant People, which is under the supervision of Cardinal Renato Martino. "The outcome of a great . . . . Continue Reading »