As a thinker Pope Francis puzzles. He raises issues, often ambiguously and in ways that unsettle things, but does not resolve them. He calls for encounter and dialogue, but refuses to answer questions. And he […]
Thanks to the fine work of Matthew K. Minerd a score of previously untranslated essays by Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (1877-1964) are now available in English. The collection, entitled Philosophizing in Faith: Essays on the Beginning […]
Government is difficult. How can anyone run other people’s lives when he likely has trouble running his own? A basic difficulty is the old problem of the one and the many. In philosophy that problem […]
On Sunday, April 25, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences held its 93rd Academy Awards. Closing in on its 100th birthday, striving for contemporary relevance, it succeeded only in showing its age. Whereas […]
Catholics today are in a difficult position. They have come to believe that active involvement in social and political life is a basic part of living the Faith. But the general conditions leading to that […]
In the column I wrote as we began Lent, I reflected on the somewhat scandalous tradition of Carnival as practiced in the traditional Catholic cultures of the Mediterranean. Northern Catholic cultures tended to delay their […]
What life are we leading today? And what is it for? Lent has been a time to reflect on such things, and Easter and Spring are seasons of rebirth. But sometimes reflection brings little comfort, […]
In 2006 Pope Benedict spoke of a peculiar Western self-hatred that is nothing short of pathological. It is commendable that the West is trying to be more open, to be more understanding of the values […]
Modern urban life has detached most people in the developed world from a visceral experience of the rhythms of nature. Snowstorms such as much of the country has recently experienced represent one of the few […]
Reciprocity, the idea that relationships go both ways, is a bedrock social principle. Reciprocity doesn’t require equality—I’m not equal to John Roberts or the cop who tickets me for double parking—but it does require mutual […]
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