I very much enjoyed Armin Rosen’s essay about the Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (“Tarkovksy’s Sublime Terror,” October 2023), but I’m afraid he has made an error of fact about Tarkovsky’s film Nostalghia. Rosen says the protagonist, Andrei Gorchakov, “swallows poison and then . . . . Continue Reading »
The story of Rome gives us hope in our own day: Times of political collapse will pass, and they can also bring forth unexpected greatness. Continue Reading »
One of the most important tasks of Synod-2023 will be the clarification of its own specific character and authority—and just what is meant by “synodality.” Continue Reading »
The young are eschewing marriage. Birth rates are collapsing. Abortion and even post-natal infanticide are commonplace. Yawning inequalities divide the haves from the have-nots, spreading decadence among the former while immiserating the latter. Society is losing the thread of its noblest . . . . Continue Reading »
George Pell was a courageous man who “en-couraged” others—who gave others courage, or, perhaps better, drew out of others the courage they did not know lay within them. Continue Reading »
There probably will never be a consensus on Vatican II and its legacy: to what extent it channeled the Holy Spirit, and how much its implementation was hijacked by the world, the flesh, and the devil. But all those who read George Weigel’s fine new book, whatever their points of view, will find . . . . Continue Reading »
Debunking myths about papal conclaves will, I hope, function as a stabilizer, as the waters surrounding the Barque of Peter will likely get more turbulent before the next conclave meets in the Sistine Chapel beneath the stern gaze of Christ the Judge. Continue Reading »