LIKE SHELBY FOOTE’S three-volume masterpiece, “The Civil War: A Narrative,” Francis Parkman’s seven-volume colossus, “France and England in North America,” is worth reading and re-reading for its literary elegance as well as its historical insight.
Author: George Weigel
Quebec: Catholicism’s Empty Quarter
Québec, a flourishing Catholic region for centuries, is now Catholicism’s empty quarter in the western hemisphere. There is no more religiously arid place between the North Pole and Tierra del Fuego; there may be no more religiously arid place on the planet. And it all happened in the blink of an eye.
He’s Not ‘Turning His Back to the People’
Cardinal Robert Sarah caused a rumpus this summer by proposing that the Catholic Church return to the practice of priest and people praying in the same direction during the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Joe Biden Is Father Isaac Hecker’s Fault?
U.S. Catholics generally know little about the Church’s history in our country. But whether you’re trying to fill gaps in your knowledge or just looking for a good read, let me recommend Russell Shaw’s “Catholics in America – Religious Identity and Cultural Assimilation from John Carroll to Flannery O’Connor” (Ignatius Press).
God and Brexit
I’d like to suggest another, perhaps deeper, answer to the question of the EU’s current distress: to put it bluntly, the “democracy deficit” is a reflection of Europe’s “God-deficit.”
Homelessness, Party-style
I grew up in what you might call a genetically Democratic family, but one in which partisan heterodoxy was not uncommon. My parents voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower twice, for Richard M. Nixon in 1960 and for the occasional Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Maryland.
The Ostpolitik Failed; Get Over It
The default positions guiding Vatican diplomacy these days badly need re-setting. That re-set must begin with a frank recognition that, whatever its intentions, Ostpolitik was a failure.
The Virtue Deficit in US Political Culture
Had I the resources, the one new book I’d give every delegate to the national political conventions meeting later this month is James Traub’s masterful biography, “John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit” (Basic Books). Traub grabs your attention quickly, seven sentences in: “[Adams] did not aim to please, and he largely succeeded.”
A Cinematic Lesson In Hope
Summoning memories of a time when the good folks won, cleanly and against all the odds, is the singular accomplishment of a splendid new documentary, “Liberating a Continent: John Paul II and the Fall of Communism.”
The Confessions of a Political Elitist
The term “elitist” has been bandied about so promiscuously in this election cycle that it’s become virtually content-free. Yet “elitist” is also being weaponized as a scare-word to prevent legitimate criticism of ideas, attitudes and behaviors. That kind of bullying is bad news for an already degraded political culture.