Posts Tagged ‘Paul Kengor’
Escape from Communism: the Bella Dodd Conversion Story
Meeting Sheen: Recovery and Reconciliation In her June 1953 public testimony, Bella Dodd informed counselor Robert Kunzig and the congressmen on his committee, “I only got out of the Communist Party completely, emotionally, when I found my way back to my own church.” In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Bella’s life was in chaos—a…
Read MoreSt. Peter Claver: Slave of the Slaves
There is a movement afoot that claims that the Roman Catholic Church was long insensitive to the plight of black slaves or to the institution of slavery in general. The movement is growing more vocal and more hostile and levies some extraordinarily uncharitable and unfounded claims. This is not the place to lay out those…
Read MoreInspiration from St. Stephen of Hungary and His Crown
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with Pope Francis by phone on Friday and thanked him for his prayers. The phone call came the day after the funeral at St. Peter’s Basilica for Cardinal Jozef Tomko, who at age 98 had been the Catholic Church’s oldest living cardinal, and the last of the great Cold War…
Read MoreRemembering Leo XIII’s Arcanum—On Christian Marriage
Few popes in the history of the Church had the impact of Pope Leo XIII. Born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci on March 2, 1810, he was the sixth of seven sons born to Count Lodovico Pecci and Anna Prosperi-Buzi. At age eight, Lodovico and Anna sent their son to study at a Catholic school…
Read MoreSt. Rita of Cascia: One of the Incorruptibles
She has become one of my favorite saints, and yet I usually don’t think of her until her feast day, which every year is May 22. In fact, you would be reading this article earlier, ahead of her feast day, if I had thought ahead. Her feast day also happens to be the day when…
Read MoreDivine Mercy Sunday and St. Faustina’s Message
This Sunday, April 24, 2022, is Divine Mercy Sunday, given to us by Saint Faustina Kowalska, by the pope who canonized her, and by their Lord Jesus. In a personal moment of divine inspiration or plain dumb luck (more likely in my case), I grabbed her famous Diary to check if she had any revelations…
Read MoreAppealing to Saints Cyril and Methodius—Heralds of Light and Faith
In June 2014, my family experienced something special. We had a private Mass in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. It was our only visit there. Descending the stairs and quietly walking past the literal bones of St. Peter himself is a surreal experience. I carried my youngest and whispered to him that…
Read MoreInspiration from the Ukrainian Martyrs
The current battle playing out in the public eye between a Russian authoritarian leader and the people of the Ukraine is unfortunately nothing new. This is a rivalry that goes way back. And the worst times was the period when Ukraine was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union and its atheistic and (indeed) genuinely evil…
Read MoreCatholic Elements of Home Alone
Released in November 1990, in time for the Thanksgiving and holiday theater-rush, the film Home Alone became an instant Christmas classic. It was a box-office smash, grossing nearly a half-billion dollars in receipts worldwide. It received numerous accolades, with Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. Its main star, Macaulay Culkin, became a household name. The…
Read MoreJulia Meloni’s The St. Gallen Mafia: Crucial Insights into Pope Francis
Julia Meloni’s new book, The St. Gallen Mafia, is a fascinating work. Rarely do I push through a book in two days, but this time I did. The research and writing are outstanding. A read of the text and study of the footnotes and bibliography make clear that Meloni seems to have read every book…
Read MoreJohn Paul II’s Feast Day and Historic Landmarks
October 22 is the feast day of Saint Pope John Paul II (on the General Roman Calendar). And for this year, 2021, his feast day comes at a historically notable time. This year marks some remarkable anniversaries related to what in retrospect was one of the sainted pope’s most notable historical accomplishments: the defeat of…
Read MoreUnchained
I love the old Twilight Zone episodes. One of my favorites is called “The Howling Man.” A bedraggled, desperate, ill tourist somewhere in the remote mountains of Europe happens upon a monastery late at night in the middle of nowhere. The monks and the abbot, Brother Jerome, are reluctant to let him in, but their…
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