Crowning History
The combination of continuity and change has always been central to the genius of coronations, reassuring us that the past is being honoured, yet reaffirming the new order of things.
The combination of continuity and change has always been central to the genius of coronations, reassuring us that the past is being honoured, yet reaffirming the new order of things.
Liberalism inherited a Christian psychology but, having jettisoned the Rock of Ages, built its political theory upon the sand.
To the extent that America and its allies have an interest in an unthreatened NATO, a tranquil East Asia, and nuclear non-proliferation, they also have an interest in Ukrainian victory.
The truth appears to be that Irish Catholicism was easy to abandon, because it seemed so hard to love.
Leftists who claim Orwell as their own would likely be surprised to discover that he was very socially conservative.
Fr. Tiso’s career, for all its failings, was a catalyst in the formation of the modern Slovak state.
Those who can see past their prejudices will discern in Twombly’s work a revolutionary aesthetic experience, where movement flows hot and red in a thrilling abstraction of Italian futurism.
We are the first to live in a completely new era that no longer wants anything to do with the thinking of the ancestors, but is based entirely on a new spirit and new values.
If the most dramatic change brought by mass migration is seen in European ethno-cultural identity, the most concrete, immediate, and undeniable consequence is the rise in violence and crime.
The sad fact is that the Church has lost faith in the Gospel. That is why it seeks to promote a new gospel of inclusion, equality, and environmentalism. The best way to survive the synod is simply to ignore it.
Christ alone can rescue His Church, but we have ousted Him in a diabolic effort to divorce Bride from Bridegroom. Perhaps the sacred magic of Hermes Trismegistus is what’s needed to banish the black magic of Enlightened man.
The bullfight will long continue to fascinate, as well as shock, upset, and mesmerise. Hemingway wrote, “Anything capable of arousing passion in its favour will surely raise as much passion against it.”
The spirit of modern Western man is like a faulty pressure cooker that’s going to explode, and every attempt to fix the problem pushes him further into false and malignant solutions of individualism, statism, transhumanism, and all the deceitful promises of the technological age.
“Some have questioned the importance of remembering our painful history. To those who believe that the youth should not be burdened with the past, let me say: a nation without memory is like a ship without a rudder and compass.”
It seems to me that the paradigm of rationalism—with all its chaotic relationships, ugly architecture, shallow sentimentalism, fetishization of abstractions, legal positivism, and blindness to persons—to which the institutional Church has conceded so much moral territory, must be overcome if we are to recover the primacy of the mystical in the life of the Church.
The advent of scientific ‘progress’ and the marginalisation of the farming world have given the illusion that we can do without them. Climate change has put things back in their proper place, and we are seeing the return of rogations and processions in our countries.
Never in human history has it been easier and cheaper to amass an enormous personal library of the greatest literature produced by our civilization (and others)—and never, perhaps, has it been more important to do so.
FROM THE SUMMER 2023 PRINT EDITION: In Europe, populists were permanently marginalised—or so it was claimed by hostile observers. However, since pandemic policies ended, unresolved problems have returned to the forefront of political debate, giving a boost to right-wing populist parties everywhere.
The message Monteverdi wants to deliver is clear: “I master all techniques and styles, from the most learned ‘stile antico’ to the most modern styles.” Not surprisingly, a contemporary described him as “the greatest composer in Italy.” As far as I am concerned, he could have added: “of all time.”
Women are facing many forms of reprisals—including censorship, loss of employment opportunities, loss of income, deplatforming, and threats of legal action—simply for daring to question the transgender movement.
Under Spain’s Democratic Memory Law, the Francoist nobility was collectively singled out for extirpation, and its heads of family found themselves officially ‘disennobled.’
Christ is the salvation for the shipwrecked. Clinging to Him will keep us afloat in a shipwrecked world. The order He brings gives the martyr the ability to lay down his life, the sorrowful to find hope, and the grieving to find peace that the world can never give.
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