What She Asks, She Obtains
by Stephen SchmalhoferThe Virgin's influence extends to American art. Continue Reading »
Restoring, and strengthening, episcopal credibility
by George WeigelVos estis lux mundi seeks to heal the Church's wounds. Continue Reading »
Big Julie
by Joseph EpsteinJames Boswell, who knew a thing or two about hero worship, called Julius Caesar “the greatest man of any age.” Alexander Hamilton told Thomas Jefferson that Caesar was “the greatest man who ever lived.” Theodor Mommsen, in his History of Rome, called Caesar “the sole creative genius . . . . Continue Reading »
A Failing Papacy
by R. R. RenoThe current regime in Rome will damage the Catholic Church. Pope Francis combines laxity and ruthlessness. His style is casual and approachable; his church politics are cold and cunning. There are leading themes in this pontificate—mercy, accompaniment, peripheries, and so forth—but . . . . Continue Reading »
Wonder Is Critical
by Randy BoyagodaI finished teaching a university course in faith and ideas a little while ago by administering individual oral exams to forty first-year students. The exams took place in a hotel bar overlooking a volcanic lake. The pope’s summer palace shone in the distance, and the Mediterranean gleamed . . . . Continue Reading »
Pagan Piety
by Kyle HarperPantheon: A New History of Roman Religion by jörg rüpke translated by david m. b. richardson princeton, 576 pages, $39.95 In August of 410, for the first time in eight centuries, the city of Rome was sacked. While the fall of the ancient capital to an army of renegade Goths might . . . . Continue Reading »
Eternal Rome
by Martin MosebachI was fifteen when I first saw Rome. One of my mother’s sisters had invited me to stay with her; we lived in a little hotel near the Via Nomentana and we were on our feet from morning till evening because I wanted to see “everything.” I came home convinced that I had actually seen . . . . Continue Reading »
The Tragedy of the Republic
by Pierre ManentWe French have for some years been overcome by a furor for republicanism and for citizenship. There is no activity so humble that it cannot take on an intimidating nobility as soon as it is associated with citizenship. The republic calls us, besieges us, smothers us—but where is the republic? Are . . . . Continue Reading »
A Lent to Remember
by George WeigelThere’s no better way to enter into the pilgrim character of the season that to participate in the 7 a.m. stational Mass led by the priest and students of the North American College. Continue Reading »
Ciceronian Times Call for Ciceronian Voices
by Carl R. TruemanThe church may be moving back to the status it had in the first-century CE but the world around us might be more akin to Rome of the first-century BCE. Continue Reading »
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