Columns
Why St. Thomas?
The Church has given the title “doctor” to some of her saints. In Latin doctor means “teacher” and the doctors of the Church are teachers of a very special sort. Pius X calls them “our […]
Pope Leo XIII
Features
Is Rerum Novarum a Socialist Manifesto?
Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum, while not the first social encyclical, was still a revolutionary document, albeit within the bounds of natural law and the Magisterium. Previous social encyclicals, beginning with Mirari Vos […]
Essay
The road to Rerum Novarum and the evolution of Catholic social teaching
From the pontificate of Gregory XVI down to the present day, there has been an ongoing crisis precipitated by the advent of the “New Things” (rerum novarum) of socialism and modernism. Since 1832 and the […]
Columns
Independence Day and Catholic social principles
July is the first full month of summer, a time for lazy hazy days of going on vacation, cooling off, doing nothing. For historians, it is the month when things really start to heat up, […]
Columns
Catholicism, the traditional family, and the crisis of fatherhood
I recently received an e-mail with the curious subject line: “Men are like water heaters”. I opened up the e-mail to find a picture of a confused-looking, middle-aged man struggling to fix a water heater […]
The Dispatch
“We never give more honor to Jesus than when we honor his Mother…”
Editor’s note: The following homily was preached for the memorial of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort (April 28, 2022) at the Church of the Holy Innocents in New York City. Today the Church holds up […]
The Dispatch
The heart of Advent: “Awaken! Remember that God comes!”
Readings: • Jer 33:14-16 • Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14 • 1 Thes 3:12-4:2 • Lk 21:25-28, 34-36 “We preach not one advent only of Christ,” wrote St. Cyril of Jerusalem in the fourth century, […]
The Dispatch
Pope Leo XIII and contemporary Catholic contentions
Given everything else going on these days, it may seem strange that a 129-year-old encyclical by Pope Leo XIII, founding father of modern Catholic social doctrine, should have become a shuttlecock in the volleys exchanged […]
Essay
Vistas & Valleys: The instructive paths, perspectives of Maritain and MacIntyre
Since the ancient Greeks, there have generally been two opposing impulses for political thought. The first is summed up in Plato’s Republic, the second in Aristotle’s polis. The republic is large and relies on the […]
The Dispatch
Fides et ratio: An encyclical even more relevant today than it was in 1998
The philosophical currents that troubled John Paul II two decades ago and moved him to write Fides et ratio haven’t disappeared. […]