The Dispatch

Centesimus Annus at 35

May 6, 2026 George Weigel 6

Thirty-five years ago, Pope John Paul II issued his most developed social encyclical, Centesimus Annus; its title signaled the author’s intention to honor the centenary of Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum, which launched the modern papal […]

The Dispatch

The transmission theory of authority

May 4, 2026 Dr. Edward Feser 13

Scholastic thinkers like Cardinal Cajetan, St. Robert Bellarmine, and Francisco Suárez developed what is sometimes called a “transmission theory” of governmental authority. It holds that such authority ultimately comes from God, but is directly vested […]