I’ve seen documentaries on JPII many times since the early 1980s. But this is different. This is history, not merely piety. Based on the biography written by George Wiegel it tells the story of the nearly 5,000 priests and nuns who “were sent to Concentration Camps and how all polish cultural activity was forbidden on… Read More Witness to Hope: the life of JPII. DVD.
… and the Challenges for Leo. “In his May 12 article in First Things — “Francis is Full” — Bishop Robert Barron eloquently wrote of the late Pontiff’s many positive accomplishments as well as some very serious problems like a legacy of disunity. Bishop Barron’s evaluation of Pope Francis’ ministry provides a lens through which… Read More Dr. Ralph Martin on Bishop Barron and the fraught legacy of Francis
To be a Roman Catholic one must believe in miracles. This in itself has been a stumbling block to many. And yet the believer knows that one need only find the earth beneath one’s feet and all other genuine miracles become mere footnotes. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, originally a student of the intractable rationalist, Bertrand… Read More Wittgenstein and Existence.
“The man to whom all things are one, who bringeth all things to one, who seeth all things in one, he is able to remain steadfast of spirit, and at rest in God” — Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Ch. 3. 15th century + Laity, Obedience and the Pope
David Suchet’s most beautiful recital below. The Seven Penitential Psalms are united by themes of repentance, confession, and pleas for mercy. They express sorrow for sin and a longing for reconciliation with God. As sinners trying to do penance for our sins it is a good thing to meditate on them daily. David Suchet profoundly… Read More The Seven Penitential Psalms
By Victor Bruno | New Oxford Review, October 2025 Victor Bruno is an author whose writing has been featured in VoegelinView, The Political Science Reviewer, In Medias Res, Sacred Web, The Fortnightly Review, and elsewhere. He has two books published in Portuguese, the latest being René Guénon Revelado (2023). He also writes the newsletter Cartas da… Read More The Danger of Equating the Church with the Mass
When the heretic Hans Kung met with Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, Kung said it was a deeply personal conversation. Benedict said he “respected” Kung’s “path” (without agreeing with it all). He urged Kung to teach students in regard to world religions and in other areas; and so, again, an ominous pluralism was seen to… Read More Hans Kung and Benedict XVI
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -The Vatican’s top diplomat sharply criticised Israel’s “ongoing massacre” in Gaza in comments published on Monday – one of the Catholic Church’s strongest condemnations of Israel’s war against the militant group Hamas. In an interview tied to the second anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, Cardinal Pietro… Read More Pope Leo said to step up criticism of Israel’s campaign in Gaza…
by John Daniel Davidson. G. K. Chesterton said, “Some say it is impossible to return to the past; but the truth is that there is now nothing before us but the choice between two paths which both return to the past. We can return to some sort of Catholic fellowship, or we can return to… Read More Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come
by Michael Davies.From Catholic, October 1996. The Catholic Church was founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son made Man. He has promised His Church that She will continue to exist exactly as He constituted her until He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. The Catholic Church is the Church that is indefectible. The… Read More Michael Davies on the Indefectibility of the Mass of Paul VI.
Insularity: speaks only to insiders or fans, alienating broader audiences. For example, a critic might say: “The film collapses under its own self-referential weight, obsessed with referencing itself rather than telling a compelling story.” God forbid that we Christians devolve into this kind of self-referential vanity. For all his problems, Pope Francis was correct in… Read More Insularity
Spectator.com
The Imitation of ChristBy Thomas a Kempis, 15th century. Bk.1 ch.3 The Doctrine of Truth HAPPY is he whom Truth teacheth by itself, not by figures and words that pass, but as it is in itself.—PS. XVII. 36; IS. XXVIII. 26. Our opinion and our sense often deceive us and discover but little. What availeth… Read More Of the Knowledge of Truth
By Robert Coles |The New Oxford Review.September 1983. Note: Edith Stein was martyred in 1942 (aged 50) at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Gau Upper Silesia, German-occupied Poland. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Cologne on May 1, 1987. Among the 20th-century conversions to Roman Catholicism, that of Edith Stein is surely one of the most edifying and memorable.… Read More Edith Stein’s Cross
“May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. — St. Paul, Galatians 6:14. “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent,… Read More Kerygma. Finding Our Way Home Again.
Martin Bormann, Reich leader: “National Socialist and Christian concepts are incompatible. The Christian Churches build upon the ignorance of men and strive to keep large portions of the people in ignorance because only in this way can the Christian Churches maintain their power. On the other hand, National Socialism is based on scientific foundations. Christianity’s… Read More Adolph Hitler Hated Christianity
The song starts off with a slow intro in which the abandoned husband describes his two sons. “If you look at them both for awhile, you can see that are you, they are me,” he says, beautifully summing up the way we see ourselves in our children, not just physically but emotionally. “You should have… Read More Time Out. Sinatra: Michael and Peter
Consider Materialism. Whatever his origin, if man is presently and constantly “evolving” in a godless universe, then it follows that his thinking, and especially his philosophical views, cannot be worth much ultimately; his thoughts would be inherently unstable, unguided, random, merely emerging fragments in process, or mutation, on route to nowhere. / sh
& Sarah’s feminism. Yes Minister is a British political satire sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Comprising three seven-episode series, it was first transmitted on BBC2 from 1980 to 1984. A sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran for 16 episodes from 1986 to 1988. All but one of the episodes lasted half an hour, and almost all ended with a variation of the… Read More Theology is a Progressive Device? 😟
“Someone said, drink the water, but I will drink the wineSomeone said, take a poor man, rich folk don’t have a dime Go fool yourselves if you will, I just haven’t got the timeYes you can drink the water (yes you can drink the water)But I will drink the wine Someone gave me some small… Read More Time Out. Sinatra’s Cup.
‘Today, as Donald Trump reportedly provides Ukraine with intelligence for long-range missile strikes against Russia, we assess just how serious the economic situation is becoming amid reports of gas shortages. Then, as European leaders join President Zelensky in Copenhagen, we hear about the new ‘drone wall’ and how Moscow has upgraded its missiles to better… Read More Donald Trump Reportedly Shares Intelligence For Long-Range Strikes on Russia
Ross Douthat with Hasan Pike “Hasan Piker, the Twitch and YouTube star, understands what pushes people to commit acts of political violence. But does that understanding tip over into appreciation? In this episode of “Interesting Times,” Ross Douthat and Piker debate why Piker’s post-liberal rhetoric attracts criticism from the right (and results in the occasional… Read More When are Western Communists Conning the Rest of Us About the Use of Political Violence?
By historian William Thomas Walsh “Of the external foes of the Church, Mohammedanism was one of the most dangerous and long enduring. Ideologically it was not external, but one of the great heresies, containing as it did many Christian elements, mingled with some borrowed from Judaism, and much gross and carnal materialism foreign to both;… Read More What the Critics of the Crusades Forget or Ignore
“How did both world wars impact the iconic works of Tolkien and Lewis? Socrates in the City host Eric Metaxas is joined by author and historian Joseph Loconte to discuss his newest book, The War for Middle-earth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933–1945. ,, Throughout this book and conversation, the looming… Read More Could England Fall? Tolkien, Lewis, Chesterton.
Someone said, “A little philosophy and science will take a man away from God. But a great deal of it will bring him back”. C.S. Lewis on materialism; Consequences for Our Thought-Processes and Philosophies of Truth… ‘If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this… Read More Revisiting C.S. Lewis on the Dangers of Scientism
Father Jacques Philippe Commentaries, October 1, 2025 | National Catholic Register This year, the Catholic Church celebrates the centenary of the canonization of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of her birth in 2023, Pope Francis wrote an apostolic exhortation entitled “It Is Trust,” which is a beautiful synthesis of the spirituality… Read More The Little Way of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Is a Path of Hope
And a response It Ain’t Broke, But Let’s Fix It Anyhow June 2004, NOR We picked up a Catholic magazine, and on the cover was one big headline, and it was a striking one: “Was Vatican II a Mistake?” In the background to the headline were a litany of post-Vatican II disasters: “practicing homosexuals in… Read More The New Oxford Review Exchange on Whether Vatican II Was Necessary
Marxist secular eschatology, or in simpler terms, the Marxist vision of history’s ultimate goal (telos). 1. The Core Idea Marxism, though explicitly secular and materialist, still carries a kind of “this-worldly eschatology.” It inherits the structure of religious teleology (a progression toward an end) but replaces the divine with historical material processes. At its heart:… Read More A.I. Summary of Marxism. Stolen Theology and History.
The Telegraph 2024 Is the UN still relevant? The organisation faces numerous unresolved conflicts, a cash crisis, deep polarisation among its members, a bloated bureaucracy and the waning interest of its biggest backer, the US. Venetia Rainey speaks to Richard Gowan, veteran UN watcher and UN director for the US think tank International Crisis Group.… Read More Is the UN Still Relevant?
“I appeal also to philosophers, and to all teachers of philosophy, asking them to have the courage to recover, in the flow of an enduringly valid philosophical tradition, the range of authentic wisdom and truth — metaphysical truth included — which is proper to philosophical inquiry — John Paul II, Fides et Ratio # 106… Read More John Paul II’s Battle Against Nihilism
NOR editor, Pieter Vree, writes, “The NOR was contacted by a neocon foundation — right out of the blue” …”As my father wrote, “We at the NOR are glad to be independent of the ideological bigwigs. We don’t have to run around on the New York and D.C. cocktail-party circuit. We don’t have to kiss… Read More New Oxford Review’s Finest Hour
By Dr. Richard Bauckham. A groundbreaking work in New Testament studies, expanded and updated. Winner of the 2007 Christianity Today Book Award in Biblical Studies, this momentous volume argues that the four Gospels are closely based on the eyewitness testimony of those who personally knew Jesus. Noted New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham challenges the prevailing assumption that… Read More Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
Biblical Interpretation in Crisis. On the Question of the Foundations: and Approaches of Exegesis Today by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 1988 (later Pope Benedict XVI) In Wladimir Solowjew’s History of the Antichrist, the eschatological enemy of the Redeemer recommended himself to believers, among other things, by the fact that he had earned his doctorate in theology… Read More Biblical Interpretation in Crisis — Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 1988
By Casey ChalkNew Oxford Review, Sept.2025 Christians, even those who convert (or revert) after a long sojourn in the wilderness, often fail to appreciate how hard it can be for someone to abandon his previous beliefs and place his faith in Christ. For every bit of evidence deemed demonstrable proof for the existence of God,… Read More Motives of Credibility: The Miracles of Christ
It was fascinating to watch Mike Pompeo shock duo. Rory was as jumpy as a stage monkey. He knew he had been hashed. So they tried in vain to recover, i.e., by ad hominem, after Pompeo had left the studio. If you wish to see how obsequious and temperamental the posh one can become when… Read More Mike Pompeo Tells Stewart and Campbell No Way A Two State Solution
Neither Socialism nor lassez faire CapitalismOctober 1, 2001 | By Mark and Louise Zwick The following was a talk given at the American Chesterton Society annual conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, in June 2001. Dorothy Day and G. K. Chesterton were contemporaries. Both came into Catholicism in the 1920’s, Chesterton in 1922 at age 48… Read More G.K. Chesterton and Dorothy Day on Economics
Ross Douthat writes, “He may believe that the age of American-led globalization is ending no matter what, that after the pandemic certain walls will stay up everywhere, and that the goal for the next 50 years is to consolidate what you can — resources, talent, people, territory — inside your own civilizational walls. In this… Read More Putin The New Czar?
UK Braces for Digital ID. Sir Jacob Rees Mogg warns of the totalitarian nature of the endeavour redolent of Communist China where Total Surveillance of Citizens prevails. The Government New digital ID scheme to be rolled out across UK A new digital ID scheme will help combat illegal working while making it easier for the… Read More “The Creed of Slaves.” UK Braces for Digital ID.
Catholic Critique 