“Conveniently, communists can always detach themselves from the horrors of the past.” By Richard Mason If someone were to ask you to think of either extreme of the political spectrum, odds are you would immediately picture a swastika at one end, and a hammer and sickle at the other. Regardless of your views of the… Read More Why It’s Time to Treat the Hammer and Sickle Like the Swastika
Learning the First Notes All Over Again. In Fellini’s film “Orchestra Rehearsal” the Conductor found himself in the midst of a revolt. The musicians had long murmured against he Conductor on account of his rigorous methods, demands and practice sessions. The exchanges between them and he were bitter. Time did not heal this rift but… Read More Fellini’s Orchestra Rehearsal.
“Once upon a time there was a peasant woman and a very wicked woman she was. And she died and did not leave a single good deed behind. The devils caught her and plunged her into the lake of fire. So her guardian angel stood and wondered what good deed of hers he could remember… Read More The Parable of the Onion by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My Mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. (…) Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the fount of My Mercy.… Read More The Divine Mercy and Loneliness
From the autobiographical novel of the same name by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. “The story is set in a Soviet labor camp in the early 1950s and describes a single day in the life of ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov”.
Ireland, February 1st, Feast of Saint Brigid, 2021 Catholicarena.com 21st Century Ireland is desperately grasping for an identity. It sometimes defines itself against British identity, yet it has found itself increasingly becoming a subculture of Britain both financially and culturally. Some often cast it as being distinct from American culture, yet many Irish children are… Read More No, St. Brigid of Kildare Was Not a Pagan Feminist Abortionist
Planned Parenthood. Worcester, Ma. 5.19.21
Divino Afflante Spiritu Pope Pius XII – 1943 “Let all the sons of the Church bear in mind that the efforts of resolute laborers in the vineyard of the Lord should be judged not only with equity and justice, but also with the greatest charity; all moreover should abhor that intemperate zeal which imagines that… Read More On Sacred Scripture. Pius XII. 1943.
“A major area of distress for [Dorothy Day] in the 1970’s was what seemed to her the erosion occurring in the spiritual life of her fellow Catholics, including those in the Catholic Worker movement. More than ever Catholics seemed attentive to social issues she had been raising for forty years, but they were increasingly neglectful… Read More The Real Dorothy Day
In recent months, we have witnessed a string of very disappointing and frankly disgraceful incidents concerning the implementation of draconian Covid-19 restrictions. This time, the targets of the Government’s enforcement program, as well as the harassment of a certain councillor in Limerick and her political tag-alongs, were the parishioners of several Catholic churches throughout the… Read More Deplorable Restrictions on Religious Practice in Ireland
Anti-colonialism was one of the dominant political currents of the 20th century, as dozens of European colonies in Asia and Africa became free. Today we are still living with the aftermath of colonialism. Apologists for terrorism, including Osama Bin Laden, argue that terrorist acts are an understandable attempt on the part of subjugated non-Western peoples… Read More History is complex. Dinesh D’Souza on Balance Regarding Colonialism
Reginald Garrigou Lagrange and St. Alphonsus Ligouri 1. Catholic Thomist Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange’s Summary of Predestination: “Herein lies the great mystery of grace: it’s two aspects which are to be harmonized, may be expressed in the following manner: this mystery contains a striking light and shade: The light is expressed in two principles; the shade is… Read More Harmony and Differences on Predestination in Catholic Theology
Catholic Critique 