mediamissionaries

Are American Monarchists Dreamers? - Crisis Magazine : One of the commentators on a recent Crisis article of mine declared that “Charles Coulombe is a weird person who desires the destruction of democracy and its replacement with monarchy again. There is a bizarre thread in Crisis now that desires such stupid stuff.” I suppose I am a weird person, so I can’t disagree …

The Well-Fought Fight - Crisis Magazine : The incorporation of Anglican hymnody into English-language Catholic worship is one of the great blessings of the past 50 years. And within that noble musical patrimony, Ralph Vaughan Williams surely holds pride of place among modern composers. Well do I remember the summer day in 1965 when I heard a massed chorus of men and …

Proclaiming the Gospel in a secularized world In his recent address to members of the Roman Curia, Pope Francis recalls that we are no longer living in a Christian world, and speaks of the need for pastoral conversion and being authentic missionaries. By Andrea Tornielli Pope Francis’ discourse to the Roman Curia on Saturday 21 December, was important both in terms of what he said, and how he said it. Recognizing something that was already evident to several great men of the Church even before the Second Vatican Council, the Pope confirmed that: "Christendom no longer exists”. “Today we are no longer the only ones who create culture, nor are we in the forefront or those most listened to… We are no longer living in a Christian world, because faith – especially in Europe, but also in a large part of the West – is no longer an evident presupposition of social life; indeed, faith is often rejected, derided, marginalized and ridiculed”.  “We need a change in our pastoral ...

DECEMBER 23, 2019 Viktor Orbán, Defender of the Faith FR. BENEDICT KIELY Just a day after the second World Conference  on Persecuted Christians ended this November in Budapest, Hungary, a “reformed” jihadi terrorist stabbed two innocent people to death in London, before being shot by police. The inability of the liberal secularists, who are at the center of most Western governmental policies and who control most of the information the public receives via the media and academia, to comprehend the motivation for such an attack is the reason why they will only increase. The London Islamist attack, one of many over the last decade in Europe, focused many to ask why certain European countries have been targeted regularly and why other countries have not been targeted at all. Hungary, the host nation for the conference and still the only nation in the world to have a specific governmental ministry devoted to the assistance of persecuted Christians everywhere is regularly a...

How Catholicism influenced movie making from the early days of film (VIDEO) NEW YORK (CNS)  -- Motion pictures have enchanted the public since the late 19th century, providing audiences with vivid storytelling on a host of topics and conceptually transporting them to distant places. The art form was able to merge literature, theater and even biblical accounts and project it all onto accessible screens for the masses to take in. However, as the film industry grew in the early 20th century, Catholic Church leaders became concerned about some of the content that had become so readily available to their flock. Priests in the United States began to discuss films they deemed objectionable during Mass and to instruct the faithful to stay away from the "sinful" content. Catholic groups throughout the U.S. began to organize in an effort to influence filmmakers into creating content that reflected moral standards and wouldn't lead viewers to sin. In 1915, the U.S....

English Historical Fiction Authors: Behind the Scenes of Charles Dickens' 'A Christ... : by Nancy Bilyeau It may well be the most beloved Christmas story ever written. Charles Dickens' novella, originally titled Christma...

Progressive Inhumanity, Part One: The State against the Family - Crisis Magazine : When they were casting for the old western The Rifleman, one small boy was brought into the room after another, to meet the star Chuck Connors and the director.  Then young Johnny Crawford came in, a little gangly in the arms and legs, with tousled hair and large brown eyes.  “That’s the son of Lucas …

Christ, the King of Advent - Crisis Magazine : “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” In the Church calendar, the days of holy feasts and solemnities go by with dizzying speed. And sometimes the chronology seems disordered. We might wonder, for example, why the Slaughter of the Innocents on December 28th comes before the Epiphany on January 6th. The short …

NOVEMBER 25, 2019 Christ in the Waste Land CHILTON WILLIAMSON, JR. Thirty-six years ago a small slim book crossed my desk  at the offices of  National Review  in Manhattan. Its title was  The Restitution of Man: C.S. Lewis and the Case Against Scientism ; its author, Michael D. Aeschliman. I slipped it into my briefcase and began reading it over a martini on the flight back to Wyoming. At home, I finished the book and wrote an enthusiastic review for the magazine. Now it is back in print in a third edition, this time from Discovery Institute Press in Seattle, with a new foreword by James Le Fanu, the British medical doctor and a columnist for the  Daily Telegraph , and other new material. It is good to make its acquaintance again. Aeschliman describes his aim as being “to recover, refurbish, and defend… [the concept of] the irreducible sacredness and ultimate value of the human person: person, not just thing; subject, not just object; end,...

NOVEMBER 25, 2019 Christ in the Waste Land CHILTON WILLIAMSON, JR. Thirty-six years ago a small slim book crossed my desk  at the offices of  National Review  in Manhattan. Its title was  The Restitution of Man: C.S. Lewis and the Case Against Scientism ; its author, Michael D. Aeschliman. I slipped it into my briefcase and began reading it over a martini on the flight back to Wyoming. At home, I finished the book and wrote an enthusiastic review for the magazine. Now it is back in print in a third edition, this time from Discovery Institute Press in Seattle, with a new foreword by James Le Fanu, the British medical doctor and a columnist for the  Daily Telegraph , and other new material. It is good to make its acquaintance again. Aeschliman d escribes his aim as being “to recover, refurbish, and defend… [the concept of] the irreducible sacredness and ultimate value of the human person: person, not just thing; subject, not just object; end...

https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/doublethinking-1984-after-70-years

https://soundcloud.com/edchoice/cool-schools-regina-caeli-academy-brings-a-university-model-to-homeschooling Kari Beckman

Abuse of Language Leads to the Abuse of Power JOHN PAUL MEENAN The great Thomist Josef Pieper  penned a short book in the late seventies on how totalitarian regimes use words to gain control over the masses:  Abuse of Language  – Abuse of Power . Pieper’s treatise came to mind as I read that the Canadian government is no longer going to refer to ISIS as ISIS (that is, the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or sometimes just the “Islamic State”). Rather, they will use the more neutral term “Daesh,” so as to avoid, they say, painting all of Islam with the bloodstained brush of terrorism. Ironically, not only does this name (which is in fact an Arabic acronym) mean more or less the same thing as ISIS, but the terrorists of ISIS  have threatened to cut the tongue out of anyone using it . Of course, this opens up many questions, not least the relation between Islam and terrorism. Taken to its logical conclusion, this change in nomenclature would mean that no terro...