Free Republic

One of the saddest hallmarks of our times is profound historical ignorance. What makes this ignorance particularly grievous is that it is not self-aware. Rather, it arrogantly considers itself wise and possessed of deep, often hidden truths. Whether this ignorance manifests itself in the study of the saints, Christopher Columbus, the Church Fathers, the Great Persecution, Late Antiquity, Catholic morality, or a million other topics, it is found everywhere. It is truly pandemic. We are surrounded by sophomores in the literal sense of that word—and the sophomores in question are not only wise fools but nasty bullies as well. It...

Christendom Is the Solution for the Emptiness of our Nihilistic Society Grave moral problems are tearing the country apart. For many, this is apparent in the form of broken homes, procured abortion, shattered communities and lost Faith. Many people get it right when pointing out the problems. However, they get it wrong when looking for solutions. Some get it wrong because they look for solutions that address symptoms, not causes. Others search for a way out that involves the least possible effort. In these politically correct times, people are told not to offend anyone by their proposals. Thus, they automatically...

Even if you’re a Protestant who doesn’t accept the magisterial authority of the bishop who founded tomorrow’s feast, you can use Christ the King Sunday to reflect on the political allegiance that, for Christians, trumps all others. You can decide whether you think Pius is right both to emphasize that Christ’s “kingdom is spiritual and is concerned with spiritual things” and yet still has some authority “in civil affairs, since, by virtue of the absolute empire over all creatures committed to him by the Father, all things are in his power.” The 20th century notion of dedicating one Sunday each...

Francis laments that world powers did nothing to save Jewish, Christian, gays from Nazi death camps.ROME — Pope Francis on Sunday denounced what he called the “great powers” of the world for failing to act when there was intelligence indicating Jews, Christians, homosexuals and others were being transported to death camps in Europe during World War II. He also decried the deaths of Christians in concentration camps in Russia under the Stalin dictatorship, which followed the war....

The term “social justice”… is the key term and concept of Catholic social teaching … with all the other aspects of the Church’s social doctrine—the principle of subsidiarity, the just wage or the right to private property—are related to, and rely, on the existence of social justice. The term “social justice,” though common enough today, is little understood by most of those who use it—whether they consider themselves friends and practitioners of social justice, or they regard it as a suspect term of probably socialist origin. But the term does have a precise meaning. That meaning and the significance of...

The Text of Pope Pius’s Address

[Image of Christ the King, taken from Pius XI: The Kingship of Christ] [Taken from QUAS PRIMAS (On the Feast of Christ the King)] In the first Encyclical Letter which We addressed at the beginning of Our Pontificate to the Bishops of the universal Church, We referred to the chief causes of the difficulties under which mankind was laboring. And We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private...

This is marvelous. Biretta tip to FA o{]:¬) The blog on L’espresso by Sandro Magister has a great item, which I offer in my translation: In the curriculum of Pius XI there is a certificate for being a first-rate shot In L’Osservatore Romano for 20 November, ... there stands out in the cultural page a bizarre headline: "the librarian with the pistol". We are not dealing with just any librarian, but with Achille Ratti, who became Pope with the name Pius XI. And the gun? Here’s the explanation of this oddity. When he was prefect of the Ambrosian Library in...

Vatican to release files on Pope Pius XI VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said Friday it will release from its secret archives years of files on Pope Pius XI, whose pontificate spanned most of the period between the world wars. The files cover the period from Feb. 6, 1922, to Feb. 10, 1939. Researchers will be allowed to access the files beginning Sept. 18. In 2003, the Vatican began making available to scholars millions of Vatican documents from the years leading up to World War II, making them available ahead of schedule at the request of Pope John Paul II....

To read this encyclical [Mortalium Animos] is to read a point-by-point condemnation of Assisi, and one gets the eerie feeling that Pope Pius XI was prophesying and simultaneously condemning with remarkable accuracy... One supreme pontiff engaged in an act that was explicitly and in all points condemned by a previous supreme pontiff...Pope Pius XI condemned Assisi before it even happened - and why did he condemn it? Because Assisi is one of those events that is "founded... on that false opinion," namely, the false opinion that all religions are "more or less good and praiseworthy, since they all in different...