Topics

When the Secular Saints Go Marxing In

REVOLUTION WITHOUT END

Jason M. Morgan

Some call on "the American way of life" as a bulwark. But the American way of life is whatever the latest and strongest revolutionary says it is.

Behemoth Goes Back to Bed

A SHORT STORY

Jeffrey Wald

An enormous fat cat, reminiscent of a miniature hippopotamus, strolled the sidewalk. It had been decades since he’d been out. Some things were different...

Can Government Solve Inequality?

Jason M. Morgan

A just economy is not the product of any ideology, capitalist or socialist or otherwise; it is a function of loving one’s neighbor.

Communist Ideology Roars Back

Renato Cristin

We live in an era of decadence, a fatal decline if we fail to defeat the most dangerous enemy of the West: communism and all its lies.

Are Catholicism & Socialism Compatible?

Thomas Storck

Unlike the ideologies of both socialism and capitalism, the Church promotes a society in which all of life functions as a harmonious whole leading to Heaven.

Nineteen Eighty-Four. By George Orwell.

LITERATURE MATTERS

Michael S. Rose

The citizens of Oceania are not only stripped of human freedom and basic rights but so dehumanized that each individual lacks any semblance of human dignity.

The Soviets’ Doomed Battle with Byt

Jason M. Morgan

Atheism never completely took the place of forbidden religion, and its failure was coterminous with the downfall of Russian communism.

Beyond Balkanization

CROATIA & ITS CARDINAL

Thomas Basil

Croatia's cardinal Stepinac faced opposition unimaginable to most prelates in the modern West. By all indications, he did not buckle.

Socialism: A Christian Heresy?

ITS GNOSTIC ROOTS & UNDYING APPEAL

Nicholas J. Healy

Socialism rejects the salvation of Jesus Christ and insists that man can be “freed” through the destruction of Church, family, and community.

The Communist Era: Golden Age of Catholicism in Poland?

ISOLATION HELPED TO PRESERVE IDENTITY & FIDELITY

Michael Wisniewski

While the Church across Western Europe suffered reform gone wild, Poland was isolated enough to preserve her identity and fidelity.

Religious Rebirth in the Black Mountains

AMID BOUTS OF CONVERT BEWILDERMENT SYNDROME

Thomas Basil

A Montenegrin national census asked about religious affiliation. Seventy-two percent answered Orthodox, 3.5 percent Catholic, and 19 percent Muslim.

Kindred Spirits, Fellow Victors

Christopher Beiting

Paul Kengor is an accurate historian who recognizes all the atrocities the USSR committed and the blight it cast across the 20th century.

A Demon-Haunted Europe: Democracy's Totalitarian Impulse

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH RYSZARD LEGUTKO

Timothy D. Lusch

Ryszard Legutko traces the twin developments of liberalism and democracy and shows how, at their precise intersection, the totalitarian impulse rises.

A Church Rises from the Ruins

BROTHERS OF THE SWORD, THE SINGING REVOLUTION & JOHN PAUL'S LAST BISHOP

Thomas Basil

Catholicism in 1980s Estonia amounted to one shunned priest living in a closet; his flock numbered fewer than a half dozen souls.

Cardinal Mindszenty & His Small, Honest Nation

A PORTRAIT OF COURAGE AT GREAT COST

Ronald J. Rychlak

Mindszenty was a Christian voice crying for freedom and liberation from behind the Iron Curtain at the height of the Cold War. The West barely heard his voice.

Invading Russia with Christ's Love

A PRIEST OF HARD LABOR & GULAGS

Clara Sarrocco

Fr. Walter Ciszek had his mission in the bleakest and darkest pits of suffering humanity. This went on for fifteen years minus a few months.

The Role of Dezinformatsiya in the Framing of Pius XII

THE SECRET HISTORY BEHIND THE ONGOING CAMPAIGN

Ion Mihai Pacepa & Ronald J. Rychlak

The false charge that Pius was "Hitler's Pope" was designed to discredit not just a Pope, but the Church, Christianity, Western values, and even the very idea of religion.

A Faith Enshrined, A Nation Renewed

UP FROM THE ASHES

Christopher Gawley

Hungary still bears the scars of four decades of communist misrule combined with three generations of atheistic indoctrination.

God & Man in Kyiv

RELIGIOUS SUPPRESSION ON YOUTUBE

Thomas Basil

Monastery of the Caves was founded on the Dnieper River in A.D. 1015, when Kyiv was capital of the Russian state. The monastery is one of Orthodoxy's greatest.

We're All Socialists Now

Edwin Dyga

The traditional left and mainstream right are in the same camp, usually competing over the externals of governance, not the real substance of policy.

The Role of 'Ramparts' Magazine in the Campaign Against Pius XII

A CATHOLIC FRONT FOR COMMUNIST AGITATION

Ronald J. Rychlak

The change in Pius XII's reputation was not an organic result of honest inquiry. Something else was at play.

The Hidden Heroism of Witold Urbanowicz

PILOT, PATRIOT, FAMILY MAN, NEIGHBOR

Clara Sarrocco

This Polish family lived in such an unpretentious way that no one ever suspected they had lived such remarkable lives.

A Hero of History Is Beatified

In the final analysis, can any of the objections voiced against his beatification stand up to the proof that God Himself intervened in the temporal world in response to the heavenly intercession of Pope John Paul II?

A Mass in Latvia

FROM COMMUNISM TO CHRISTIANITY

Thomas Basil

Here Catholics can discover a Church tougher and more unashamed than their own, and perhaps can learn how to persevere against a cultural elite that despises them.

The Conscience of Croatia

STEPINAC, TITO & USTASHE

Ronald J. Rychlak

John Paul II called Archbishop Stepinac "one of the outstanding figures of the Catholic Church," who endured "the atrocities of the Communist system."

Travels in Europe's Once & Future Faith

CHRISTIANITY ON THE CONTINENT

Thomas Basil

From 2001 to 2008 this author traveled to 16 European countries for business, attending Mass in each. This is what I encountered.

The Last Secret of Fatima

Arthur C. Sippo

For anyone who still harbors doubts about the authenticity of the third Fatima secret as revealed by the Vatican, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone's book is a must read.

A Morally Squalid Man Besotted With Ideology?

Honest-to-goodness Communists are not all alike.

Graffiti in Warsaw, Mormons in Krakow, & Basements in Auschwitz

TRAVELS IN POLAND

Thomas Basil

In Poland the presumption is that truth is one, and there is only the true Church. If it's not Catholic, it's not true. The spiritual maze is simple to navigate.

An American Priest at the End of the Earth

IN THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST

Michael S. Rose

Approximately 40 percent of all Russians are at least nominally Orthodox, compared to the less than one percent who are baptized Catholics.

At Mass in Lenin's City

AN ALTAR CONSECRATED BY PRIESTLY BLOOD

Thomas Basil

The Catholic Church is the only large institution left for effective resistance to Trotsky's enduring Culture of Death and its ruinous impact.

Croatia: "The Ramparts of Christendom"

TODAY THE ENEMY IS SECULAR LIBERALISM

Jeffrey Thomas Kuhner

From Ideology to Magic

IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION

Desmond O'Grady

The Gulf Between East & West

UKRAINIAN DIARY -- PART II

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Pilgrimage to the Christian East

UKRAINIAN DIARY - PART I

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Stuck Back in 1989

John Luxmoore & Jolanta Babiuch

Review of The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism

Outrageous Thoughts on War and Peace

A TIME TO CHOOSE LIFE

Robert N. Bellah

Toward a Russian Junta?

SAVING THE SOVIET EMPIRE

Thomas Molnar

Maintaining the Independence of the Church

R.F. Sheehan

Review of Nicaragua's Other Revolution: Religious Faith and Political Struggle

Reflections on the Past & Future of Democratic Socialism

IN LIGHT OF THE CRUMBLING OF COMMUNISM

Irving Howe

The democratization of economic and social life is at the heart of the socialist idea today. The idea is simple, the techniques necessarily complex and difficult.

If Not Communism or Capitalism, What?

CHRIST AND NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Any ef­ficient democracy must operate on the princi­ple of subsidiarity, and this holds true in the economic as well as the political sphere.

The Muscular & Visionary Pope

VANQUISHING THE EAST — NEXT THE WEST?

Edward R.F. Sheehan

Liberation Theology: Can It Shake Its Affinity for Marxism?

John C. Cort

What saints and Doctors of the Church have written is far more useful than anything written by Karl Marx in per­suading Christians to adopt a critical attitude toward capital­ism.

The Evolution of Liberation Theology

MOVING AWAY FROM MARXIST ANALYSIS

Arthur F. McGovern

Intellectual Opportunism & the Arteriosclerosis of the American Intelligentsia

VITAL WORKS RECONSIDERED, # 3

John Lukacs

Poland's Solidarity: A Personalist Revolution

SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION VS. COMMON SENSIBILITY

Bohdan Pilacinski

The Future of Eastern Europe

NOT WHAT MOST AMERICANS ARE EXPECTING

Thomas Molnar

The Moral Use of Nuclear Weapons?

C.H. Ross

Review of A Fighting Chance: The Moral Use of Nuclear Weapons

The Crumbling of Communism: Good for the Catholic Church?

EDITORIAL

Communism: From Modernity's Vanguard to History's Rearguard

EDITORIAL

Central America: Perspective & Judgment

James G. Hanink

Throughout Central America the Church is a voice of the simple people. Often it is hemmed in by at best suspicious regimes, of the Right or the Left.

The Conspiratorial World View of Whittaker Chambers

VITAL WORKS RECONSIDERED, #1

John Lukacs

The road from the Hiss-Chambers case to an American president’s advocacy of the idea of the Evil Empire was straight, though slow.

Why Socialists Should Drop Marx

DEMYTHOLOGIZING A GIANT

John C. Cort

Marx should neither remain a dominant theorist of the worldwide democratic socialist movement, nor the source of ideas, strategy, or analysis.

The Continuing Irony of American History

A NIEBUHRIAN VIEW OF CARTER, REAGAN & THE NEW INTERNATIONAL SITUATION

Charles L. Garrettson III

Our past is neither as virtuous as our optimists think nor as vicious as our pessimists think. It consists, rather, of a mixture of comic and tragic elements.

Two Kinds of Christian Radicalism in Nicaragua

CHRIST AND NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Gorbachev & the Decomposition of Communism: The Chickens Come Home to Roost

PROMISES & PROBLEMS OF REFORM

Dale Vree

Heaven, Hell, and Socialism

Dale Vree

Review of Christian Socialism by John C. Cort

Neither Trotskyism nor Neoconservatism

James J. Thompson Jr.

Review of American Writers and Radical Politics, 1900-39 by Eric Homberger, The Intellectual Follies by Lionel Abel, Out of Step by Sidney Hook, Will Herberg by Harry J. Ausmus, and The New York Intellectuals by Alan M. Wald

Symposium on Humane Socialism & Traditional Conservatism

AN ALLIANCE AGAINST ECONOMIC & CULTURAL "ME-ISM"?

Thomas Molnar, John B. Judis, John Lukacs, James G. Hanink, Sheldon Vanauken, Michael Lerner, Christopher Derrick, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Samuel Hux, Russell Kirk, John C. Cort, Juli Loesch, L. Brent Bozell, Robert Coles, Christopher Lasch

Bishop Sergio Mendez-Arceo on Church & Society in Nicaragua

Guest Column

Rev. Joseph E. Mulligan, S.J.

Slighting the Vatican’s ‘Ostpolitik’

A. James McAdams

Review of Moscow and the Vatican by Alexis Ulysses Floridi, S.J.

The Soviet Union & Gorki’s God

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

A people, such as the Russians, who have produced and who still honor writers like Gorki, Dostoyevsky, and Tolstoy deserve to be regarded with respect.

The Rough Edges of Socialism

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Contemporary socialism of the democratic, Western European form hasn’t yet eliminated all its sharp edges.

The Vatican Looks at Non-Marxist Socialism

WITH THE WISDOM OF THE AGES

Thomas Molnar

In its universal concern, the Church cannot be a mouthpiece for the West, even if, as a result, the Pope is accused of “misunderstanding the free-market economy.”

Silone’s Religious Humanism

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

The world is wolfish, devouring, full of evil, Silone knew — yet, good will and love are also constantly in evidence: God’s gift to us.

The Truth About the A.C.T.U.

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

The resistance of American workers to communist domination of their trade unions was based on something far more solid than anti-communist hysteria.

Pilgrimage to Poland & Byelorussia

SLAVIC SOUL

Raymond T. Gawronski

The tradition of pilgrimage is so vibrant in Poland. My group of 600, heading to Czestochowa, walked almost 200 miles over ten days, beginning every morning at 4:00.

The Vatican & Liberation Theology

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Liberation theologians, Catholic and Protestant but mostly Catholic, have been a major factor in struggling against poverty in Latin America.

Church & Society in Communist Hungary

AN EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT

Thomas Molnar

In the post-war years, the peasantry and the proletariat have been the winners, while the old bourgeoisie has been the great loser.

What Will World War III Be About?

LETTER FROM ENGLAND

Christopher Derrick

There are many ways to cut this world’s cake in half and take sides. A Christian should presumably think in terms of the Church vs. the world.

Socrates on Communism & Capitalism

WHAT, THEN, IS THE DIFFERENCE?

Peter Kreeft

Socrates asks what would happen to a capitalist nation if everyone practiced the greedlessness of Jesus, or Buddha, or even Thoreau?

Impressions of Nicaragua — Part II

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

In the well-to-do sections of Managua, the Pope’s picture may be seen displayed proudly on the doors of houses, in any number of windows.

Impressions of Nicaragua — Part I

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

Recently I went with two of my sons to Nica­ragua, where we spent time visiting schools, hospitals, clinics, a number of Managua’s barrio homes, and those of other cities.

The Passing of the Old-Timers

Michael Kerper

With their old anti-Stalinism gone because of Stalin’s death, the anger of many New York intellectuals was turned against Ameri­can society.

Roman Catholics & Central America

SEARCHING FOR PEACE

John R. Quinn

The Church in North America is enriched by the example of the Church in Central America as it struggles for justice and human digni­ty.

The Roman Catholic Church in Central Europe

THE POWER & THE GLORY?

Erazim Kohák

The heavy-handed Russian attempt at easternization made central Europeans far more conscious of their Western heritage.