In That Grand UN Style

Posted: Wednesday, July 1, 1998
Ladies and Gentlemen as People's Exhibit A, I submit a proposal by the United Nations that may, among other things, make "enforced pregnancy" an international crime. Never heard of it? Let me explain.   [Full Story]

Our Man in Havana

Posted: Wednesday, April 1, 1998
A dissident labor leader, a faithful Cuban Catholic, said it best. Speaking with a group of Americans at a Havana hotel during the pope's trip this past January, he explained, I "What has Castro got on his side? La fuerza (force). That's it."  [Full Story]

The Several-Storied Thomas Merton

Posted: Saturday, February 1, 1997
It is a timeworn literary conceit, but some writers seem to be several people. There always exists some disparity, of course, between writers and their work. Yet a kind of multiple personality disorder keeps turning up in writers-and writers with a religious bent seem particularly susceptible, as they keep in play not only complex human realities but divine realities as well. Dostoyevsky, Graham Greene, Walker Percy, and many other distinguished names attest to how common a phenomenon this is. But of all the great modern religious writers, no one harbored within himself a larger cast of dramatis personae than Thomas Merton.   [Full Story]

The Mystery of the Passion of Charles Péguy

Posted: Sunday, December 1, 1996
When a true genius is born, nothing in the family or its circumstances allows us to predict the new arrival. Something mysterious and sovereign suddenly erupts with genius. That's all there is to say. Among this century's Catholic geniuses, no clearer instance of this mystery exists than the brilliant French poet and essayist Charles Péguy.   [Full Story]

Since Long Before 1492

Posted: Friday, December 1, 1995
Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery, by Bernard Lewis.  Reviewed by Robert Royal.  [Full Story]