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January 15, 2020

Note from the Managing Editor:

Sir Roger Scruton went to his reward last Sunday at the age of 75.  Sir Roger has been described as the greatest conservative philosopher since Edmund Burke. 

My dealings with Roger Scruton amounted to nothing more that emailing him periodically to ask permission to re-publish something he'd written elsewhere.  There was a lot that was worth requesting.  In all the years he never said no to one of those requests.

When his autobiography, Gentle Regrets, came to my attention I was especially delighted with chapter 5.  "Dear Roger, It's a lot to ask, but may I reprint all twenty pages of chapter five."  He granted that request without hesitation.

Chapter five, "Stealing from Churches," is a moving introduction to Sir Roger Scruton's heart and mind.  May he rest in peace. - Fraser Field



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"We are not asked to undo the work of creation or to rectify the Fall. The duty of a Christian is not to leave this world a better place. His duty is to leave this world a better man." - Monsignor Alfred Newman Gilbey



New Resources


 
"Do not be terrified" - Dorothy Day - from various sources

We may be living on the verge of eternity — but that should not make us dismal.


 
Stealing from Churches - Roger Scruton - Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life

My years as a voyeur of holiness brought me into contact with true believers, and taught me that faith transfigures everything it touches, and raises the world to God.


 
The true intellectual has today become a dissident - Roger Scruton - The Daily Mail

I travelled from Poland, already inwardly frozen by the eerie chill of Communism — and Communist Prague did nothing to raise my spirits.


 
New Documentary Offers Rare Glimpse of Benedict XVI's Life in Vatican Gardens - Edward Pentin - National Catholic Register

The half-hour documentary, which aired Jan. 3 on German television, is dignified and respectful of the 92-year-old Pope Emeritus.


 
Sister Wendy Beckett - Heather King - Magnificat

Sister Wendy Beckett (1930-2018), contemplative nun and consecrated virgin, delighted audiences worldwide with her lively BBC documentaries on the history of art.


 
Multitudes in the Valley of Decision! A Meditation on the Dramatic Battle in Which We Live - Msgr. Charles Pope - Community in Mission

A grave deficiency of modern times is the loss of the sense that our lives are caught up in a tremendous, epic battle.


 
Mistaken predictions - Father George W. Rutler - From the Pastor

Prophets proclaim the truth, and they predict the future only in a derivative sense of cautioning about the consequences of denying the truth.

Editorials of Interest:

A Call to Arms - First Things
Rome's Shame in China - Robert Royal
No Church for Young Men - Crisis Magazine

Editorials of Interest


A year in which much was lost &mdash but more gained - Roger Scruton (The Spectator)

Despite everything, I have so much to be grateful for


Call to Arms - First Things

As soon as it was announced that Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah had published a book defending priestly celibacy, they were accused of attacking Pope Francis.


Rome's Shame in China - Robert Royal

China is a large, strange, complex, contradictory thing, even before you get to the large, strange, complex, contradictory, and murderous form of Communism that has come to dominate its various peoples.


When does the Christmas season end? - Joan's Rome

Traditionally, the feast of Candlemas (the Presentation of the Lord) occurred on February 2 and marked the final conclusion of the Christmas cycle.


An invitation to those who are far from prayer - Catholic Stand

If you are far from prayer, fear not. Build your interior church, a place where you meet the Lord in silence, any time and any place.


How to be more humble — and why it matters so much - Aleteia

Now that we've all gone through the ritual of making and then almost immediately abandoning our New Year's resolutions for the 18th year in a row, there may be a more appropriate self-improvement project to consider: humility.


Old Testament God vs. New Testament God - YouTube

How come the God of the Old Testament seems so much more harsh and judgmental and oriented towards justice than the God of the New Testament, who seems more kind and gentle and merciful?


Guilio Romano's Monumental Sacristy in the Abbazia di San Benedetto - LAJ

Generally our Sacristy Tour series is focused on the contents of sacristies — vestments, liturgical metalwork and so forth — but every once in a while it is the sacristy itself that is noteworthy.


Abuse, Trauma, and the Body of Christ - CWR

Absent an honest and truthful admission of our brokenness, and the telling of the whole story, we can never find freedom and healing — let alone restore the Church's bella figura.


From Homers to Heroes: Reeling Men Back to the Faith - Roman Catholic Man

The religious practice of the father, above all, determines the future attendance at or absence from church of the children. If this is true, then we have been missing the forest for the trees in our attempts to bring people back to the fold.


No Church for Young Men - Crisis Magazine

Fathers more than anyone dramatically impact their children's future religious practice, and if parishes want children to retain their faith in adulthood (which is the purpose of youth ministry), they should focus not on the children but on the fathers.


The Martini Curve revisited - CWR

Is there a single example, anywhere, of a local Church where a frantic effort to catch up with 21st-century secularism has led to a wave of conversions to Christ?


Trauma Is Not Your Fault, But Healing Is Your Responsibility - Thought Catalog

What we cannot forget is that even when we are not at fault, healing in the aftermath will always fall on us — and instead of being burdened by this, we can actually learn to see it as a rare gift.


The Nondiscrimination Dance - First Things

In today's environment, a religious school that voluntarily publishes a nondiscrimination statement including words like "orientation," "gender," and "expression" will have unwittingly undermined its religious mission by opening the door to secular interpretations of those words.


Laughing at dead babies and the avenging conscience - Little Catholic Bubble

Horrifying as their stories are, it makes sense that they joked about what they were doing, to the point of mocking the dead babies themselves. For one to cooperate in an unthinkable evil, one must assuage the avenging conscience in some way or another.


Unborn Child Says: "My Body, My Self , My Choice." - TAC

The Supreme Court explicitly included in Roe v. Wade the possible factual basis for its own undoing.


The Reality of Sex and the Lie of "Gender Self-Identity" - CWR

This is a bizarre, deeply damaging moment we're living in, driven by a tiny minority of people suffering various forms of mental illness.


The Traumatic Foundation of Gender Dysphoria - Crisis Magazine

We live in a culture that says you can become — and, in fact, are — whatever you think you are, so few people dare question the transgender person's idea of reality.


Organ donations surge in Canada after legalization of assisted suicide - Aleteia

The practice of soliciting organ donations from patients who will die following medically assisted suicide has led to ethical concerns.


CNN Settles Lawsuit Brought by Covington Catholic Student Nicholas Sandmann - National Review

Sandmann sought $275 million from CNN over its coverage of the confrontation he and his classmates had with an elderly Native American man while visiting Washington, D.C., on a school trip in January of last year. The amount of the settlement was not made public.


Virginia bill would allow birth control, vaccines for kids without parental consent - LifeSite

A Democrat-sponsored bill in Virginia would treat minors as adults for the purpose of consenting to birth control, vaccines, and "medical or health services required in case of ... pregnancy or family planning except for the purposes of sexual sterilization."


Latin America's Lost Decade - NC Register

Despite the election of the first pope from Latin America in 2013, the past decade has mostly been a march backward, both for secular society and for the Church.


20-year-old filmmaker wins award for powerful 1-minute film about marriage - Aleteia

The short says a lot about how married love can help reconcile and restore others around us.


Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman and
St. Justin Martyr, pray for us

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