In times of crisis like ours, there is the constant temptation for discouragement. The challenges we face are indeed great. All around us, there are signs of decadence and decay. Instead of great hope, many will greet the year 2022 with gloom and anxiety. The proper balance is neither underestimating our dire situation nor engaging … Read more
The perilous situation of the Christian cavaliers pent up and beleaguered within the walls of Alhama, spread terror among their friends, and anxiety throughout all Andalusia. Nothing, however, could equal the anguish of the Marchioness of Cadiz, the wife of the gallant Roderigo Ponce de Leon. In her deep distress, she looked round for some … Read more
The Coronavirus is not the first epidemic to strike the world. Yet as churches are closed and the sacraments are difficult to find, the question arises: How did the Church and the saints deal with plagues in the past? In the golden pages of history, we find a holy bishop who faced a virus more … Read more
Modern society obsessively avoids suffering, risk and danger. It secures everything with seatbelts and safety rails, air conditions the summer heat, prints warnings on coffee cups and advises that that safety glasses should be used while working with hammers. Certainly such precautions have prevented misfortune. However, since heroism and excellence are born from confronting rather … Read more
This is the true story of a Marine wounded in Korea in 1950. Writing to his mother, he told her of a fascinating encounter he experienced in the war. Father Walter Muldy, a U.S. Navy chaplain who spoke to the young Marine and his mother as well as to the outfit commander, always affirmed the … Read more
John Canley knew he wanted to be a Marine when he was only thirteen years old. He and his older brother L.J. went to see the movie Sands of Iwo Jima starring John Wayne. He left the theater transformed. What moved him most was the scene of the marines raising the American flag on Mount … Read more
“There are no atheists in a foxhole.” This catchphrase has been attributed to many authors, which is often the case for pithy phrases that tell great truths. Those who are on the brink of a violent death, see friends die next to them, or witness grave injuries need spiritual help as much as the material … Read more
The moving story of the last months of Col. Wesley Fox and his doctor who went “above and beyond the call of duty.” Honor is a very beautiful word that is used a lot but seldom really defined. Catholic thinker Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira once defined honor as a virtue whereby one seeks those things that … Read more
It sometimes takes a disaster to bring out the good in people. The massive Hurricane Harvey that hit the Texas coast on August 26 was one such case. The outpouring of help for and rescue of the storm’s victims revealed one of the best aspects of the American soul. ABC News reports on this with … Read more
Including under this term every kind of brotherhood of knights, secular as well as religious, historians of the military orders have enumerated as many as a hundred, even after eliminating the apocryphal and stillborn. This great number is explained by the eagerness with which the Middle Ages welcomed an institution so thoroughly corresponding to the … Read more
