In Praise of the Agnostic

If you’ve ever met a real, honest-to-goodness bigot, you know it’s hard to feel anything towards him except pity. Who wants to live in a world so small and simple it can fit into such a narrow mind? We might even say that a bigot is a man who’s got nothing but opinions. They’ve crowded out all

The Pint, the Pipe—or the Cross?

[Friends, another small announcement. Between my family, my day-job, and my other writing commitments, I find I don’t have time to update this blog as regularly as I’d like. So, I’m committing myself to one exclusive piece on my Substack every week, which will be delivered on Fridays. I will still post shorter pieces here

Fall of the Liberal Empire

Over at The Spectator there’s an excellent piece by Angus Colwell reconsiders the legacy of Christopher Hitchens in light of our defeat in Afghanistan. “It hasn’t taken 20 years to work out that Christopher Hitchens was a dud,” Mr. Colwell writes, but this week’s collapse of Kabul obliges us to re-examine the Hitchens back catalogue—because

Pray for Cardinal Burke

We’re all truly blessed to be alive at the same time as Raymond Cardinal Burke.  We’re fortunate to have this living saint in our midst, offering us a flesh-and-blood role model to imitate in our path to sanctity. I’m sure you’ve heard that His Eminence is in the hospital battling COVID-19.  I’m not going to

The Tsarists of New Hampshire

Here’s a fascinating essay by Michael J. Connolly at The Imaginative Conservative: World War One shattered the old political order, its traditional monarchies and aristocracies, and the historical boundaries of nations. The explosion also ejected the population of European nations across the world in a flood of refugees, both the high born and the low.

St. Francis and the Bishops

In my last post, I promised to take a long (perhaps permanent) hiatus from Church politics.  Then I came across this passage in Blessed Are You by Mother Mary Francis.  Blessed Are You is a collection of meditations on the Beatitudes. A new edition was just released by Sophia Institute Press.  Here’s Mother on the

The Post-Christian Papacy

[Friends: I’m very sorry for the overload of Church politics.  I’m going to take a week or two off from blogging.  When I come back, we’ll talk about more pleasant things than the latest chancery gossip. Before I go, however, I wanted to let all of you know that The American Conservative kindly enough to

Tradition and Tolerance

Our old friends at America: The Jesuit Review have published quite an awful article responding to the Pope’s new muto proprio. Its author, Zac Davis, is associate editor of the magazine. He attended the Latin Mass once or twice in college, which qualifies him as America‘s token trad. Mr. Davis (no relation) says that the

A Non-Political Man

[In the latest issue of The American Conservative I have a review of a new translation of Reflections of a Non-Political Man by the German novelist Thomas Mann. The whole thing is now free to read on TAC’s website. Here are some of my favorite bits—if I may say so myself.] Men like Mann and

What Must We Do?

[John Henry Newman’s sermon on the Apostle Bartholomew is perhaps my all-time favorite homily. In JHN’s Parochial and Plain Sermons, it is given the title “Guilelessness.” I read it whenever I become anxious about events in Church or State. It’s about the sort of life that prepares us for true discipleship. Please do read the